Do eat things that you've never had before - As was stated in the last post, we were introduced to Ribolita, a vegetable bread soup in Florence. Now, all I (Kris10) want is Ribolita for breakfast, lunch & dinner for the rest of my life.
We also enjoyed one particularly crazy looking tomato in Venice. It almost was shaped like a little pumpkin, with deep creases that radiated from the stem. It was so juicy and flavorful. We ate it on a bench in a park in front of the train station with some fragrant cheese, a small loaf of crusty bread & two cans of Peroni, which is a cheap, yet good, Italian lager.
Don't touch the produce. - I was fondleing said tomato when a man started waving at me while yelling, "Non toccare! Non toccare!" We were standing at an outdoor produce stand getting our lunch fixings together for later. I totally understand why you are not suppose to touch the produce; the merchants spend so much time perfectly stacking every piece & it does keep their display quite beautiful. If you want something, just point and ask.
Do accept the tiny glass of "water" that the bartender just poured from an unmarked bottle - Less than a week ago we walked through coastal hills covered with olive groves and vineyards from Corniglia to Manarola, two towns in Cinque Terre, Italy. Before we embarked, we popped into a very small local bar to purchase a little bottle of Limonetto to enjoy later on in the day. There were two quite jolly men inside who laughed and said that the water in their town was very good and offered us some. Oh boy, was it good! Whatever it was, it was very clear, smooth, delicious, & very strong. I asked the man behind the bar if he had made it himself, and he said yes. Oh yeah, we had just had some Corniglian hooch!
Don't let anybody tie anything onto your wrist - When we visited the Castello Sforzesco in Milan, there were maybe 8 or so men standing around holding bunches of small string bracelets. At one point during our visit, a man aproached me all smiles and started talking to me. I said hello back then when I looked over my shoulder for Steve, who was maybe 10 feet away, the man very quickly knotted a string bracelet on my left wrist. He then demanded 5 euro, which is equal to maybe 7 bucks or more. For a piece of string?! We refused, gave him 60 cents, and walked away. The experience was nothing horrible, but just keep your hands in your pockets when you see the smiling men with handfuls of bracelets.
Do get the house wine - It is always more reasonable than any bottle they have, and almost always very good. Almost... which leads me to...
Don't hesitate to leave a restaurant if the house wine sucks - It was a little late in Venice and we were having a bit of trouble getting a table for dinner. After a bit we walked into a place that had plenty of tables, (red flag.) They sat us and we ordered. As we had requested, they brought us the house white. We took one sip and stared at eachother in disbelief. No, it couldn't be. We both took another sip & I think that is when the panic set in. Even though our order was in and there was salad on the table, we frantically told our server that something came up and we had to go.
The wine was watered down! D: There were many other red flags, but that was the big one.
We ended up having a lovely meal at a small family run place just a few doors away. We tried to order fish, as we had at the previous place. Our new waiter said that he could not serve us fish, because the fish market had been closed for two days. The other place with the watered down wine was about to serve us old fish! That could have really ruined the next few days for us.
Do accept candy when it is offered to you by old ladies - They will insist multiple times until you take one. Unlike the younger Italian population who have studied english in school, a good portion of the older generation in Italy do not speak english, and candy offering is a good way to show you that they like you. Take it & eat it. It will be good.
Don't book a room without knowing how to get there first - We spent a big chunk of time booking a room in Mainz one fine morning while we were in Levanto. On the map, it looks like it would only take maybe 4 hours from one place to the other. Later that evening we decided to check the train schedule just before we went to bed. Guess how long it was going to take... 18 hours! Whoops. We then had to completely scrap that leg of the trip and cancel the room. We love riding the train, but not that much!
It was all good, though, because we randomly ended up visiting the beautiful city of Bozen instead, which is a really wonderful slice of heaven in northern Italy.
Do bring a meal to eat on the train - We have been enjoying al fresco lunches almost every day, everywhere we go. It has proved to be quite cheap and has provided the opportunity for us to visit local markets and eat fresh, regional produce, bread, olives & cheese.
There was one particularly long travel day with multiple transfers when we neglected to stock up and we had to eat from the cafe car. Let me tell you, train food is train food, no matter where you are.
Don't forget to fill your water bottle before getting on the train - The water from the tap on the train is not potable. We have been carrying one of our steel water bottles, and the tap water in all of the towns we have visited has been deeeelicious, but we neglected to fill up once before getting on a train and had to buy a plastic bottle. Not a terrible experience, but plastic bottles just end up as more trash. (You all know it; we have hippie leanings.)
Do follow your nose & ears - We had just arrived in Bozen, Italy. It was dinner time on a Sunday and the whole city seemed to be closed. We wandered down a few cobble stone streets until we intercepted a wafting aroma of garlic. We followed the smell and soon heard many people laughing and talking inside a bar. It turned out to be a microbrew pub that served the most amazing dumplings ever. We ate there for dinner for every night that we were in Bozen; it was that good.
Don't get the two day pass for Cinque Terre - One day of sharing very steep & narrow foot trails with literally hoards of other tourists was all we could handle. We instead spent our second day riding rented bikes along a path that followed the Mediterranian coast and an old train line. We also discovered a secret nude beach!
Do rent bikes - When there is bike rental offered, it means that you are in a great place to ride. When you explore a new place by bicycle, you experience way more than just the sights. From the saddle, you hear and smell the landscape too, and you will be forced to take breaks to catch your breath, drink some water, and reflect. Ask the bike rental people where you should go; they are locals and will likely know the best place to go for a ride.
Don't stay in hotels that do not have WiFi - It makes it so much harder to plan. We have been really relying on our smart phones for directions, train times, restaurant reviews, and hotel booking. There are internet cafes where you can pay for WiFi, but I personally prefer to not have to get dressed and do my hair to get on the internet.
Don't buy stinky cheese to eat on the train - Your neighbors will surely resent you. Stinky cheese is amazing and should certainly be consumed in large quantities as often as possible, especially with dried figs, but keep it on the park bench, folks.
Do select and sit in your specifically assigned seats on the train - It is plenty easy to get those window seats and stay in them. The car and seat number system is simple to use and easy to undetstand.
Don't let people take your seats - If you have window seats, people may try to take them. There was a pair of women who refused to get out of our seats & Steve missed seeing a real, live chariot race. He still doesn't believe that I saw it!
Also, if someone is in your seat, that means that you are in someone elses too, and you will probably have to move. Just make the people who are in your seats vacate; they are the ones being rude, not you.
So, that's it for now! See you at the next post! <3 K+S
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