Travel Addicts/Advice Thread

[Bobnewton]

We drive straight to a villa about 40 minutes southeast of Florence.

Everything here is pretty much centered around food. And we’re realizing our large group is cumbersome so we’re pairing down the itinerary as we go. Like theoretically each small group could go and do stuff solo but fomo gets in the way and paralyses everyone.

It’s all good though, we stayed in this ridiculous 14th century farmhouse amongst the olives and grapes. We had a chef come and make pizza the first night. She was great, her daughter is also a chef and came the next day to make us breakfast. They also teamed up and did a pasta making class with us. And another couple meals throughout the week.

We did a couple trips into Florence by car and by train. This place is mobbed and would be great to do late late night. There’s so much to see that’s just integrated into the buildings and public art. We barely scratched the surface here.

Prior to leaving, my wife and I watched the Netflix medici series. Pretty much everywhere we were there was some relevant thing to one generation or another.

Day tripped to pisa with a stop at da delfina restaurant. Seems to just be infinite incredible views and little hillside eateries. So hard to say if we had good recommendations, got lucky, or everywhere is pretty great.

We a day trip to Modena to tour leonardi balsamic. If you’re into it, it’s pretty great. 150 year old grape juice is delicious. But a 15 year will do just fine.

And we toured frescobaldi winery. Really we’re all fans of their olive oil, laudemio. I don’t think we realized that it’s just this massive wine producer that does olives on the side. The family are descendants of the Albizzi, the Medici nemesis that were exiled to France and a century later returned to reclaim the feudal empire they still lord over today. Kinda gross really.

Next is a train trip to naples. But after the rome baggage mess, it was decided that I’d rent a wagon and drive the luggage down to lighten the load. Highlights include a stop at the autogrille, legit good paninis and a quick stop at tivoli to see the fountains which are amazing. I rate each of these spots equally.

On the way out of Florence, stepped into a Cafe next to the rental car lot for a quick bite. A guy in his 50s greets us smiling with the longest buongiorno. And after each selection of food and beverage he says very slowly and earnestly "good choice, good choice. " this will be a part of my lexicon for rest of my life. And my goal is to be as happy as that guy.

[Tilted]

Awesome TR. Appreciate the effort.

[ChrisV]

@Bobnewton

Gotta be. I was joking with my wife about next years planned Beijing to Shanghai rally.

People talk about Vietnam as crazy driving but I would much rather wander across the road in rush hour traffic 10 times in Vietnam than try it once in China.

[00cooler00]

Haha. Understandable. I’ve done this multiple times though. It’s mostly best time ever and some parts wanting to walk into the ocean and never come back. Last time I went, we rented this obscene 10+ BR house in Virginia Beach right on the beach. Indoor/outdoor pool. Movie room that we watched NFL Sunday football on. Pool table in the library room.

Ages ranged from like 22 to 80 yrs old. There’s always obviously some drama, but I do my best to steer clear of that nonsense and just chill with the fam that’s on the same page as me.

[NotBruceZ]

Have any of you travelers to Europe encountered something like this?

https://twitter.com/Amelia_Lindsey/status/1552043153783504896?s=20&t=l_dAgSjQLYNrKk25QHXjYQ

[zikzak]

Way ahead of you. And apparently wrong too, as they did not become a trend last year.

Cooking Good Food - Ramens of the day

Are we at French tacos yet? Feels like the thread is getting very close to discussing French tacos.

Cooking Good Food - Ramens of the day

There have been articles recently in the New Yorker and a couple other places. Seems likely to be a trend this year in N. America. I had a couple in Montreal. They’re OK, but very heavy. Would benefit hugely from some pickles or a big slice of tomato or something to cut through all the fat and starch.

[superuberbob]

So much this. Driving in Asia is for suicidal people.

Istanbul was pretty crazy too. Supposedly, Africa is even more insane when it comes to driving.

@NotBruceZ

Have any of you travelers to Europe encountered something like this?

Yup. French tacos. Pretty good. Half burrito, half panini.

To be fair, I’ve only had them at takeout places in Prague. So, I haven’t had the “real thing”.

[ChrisV]

I am in Jackson, WY and am being served by a bartender whose name is also Jackson

[Melkerson]

@ChrisV

I am in Jackson, WY and am being served by a bartender whose name is also Jackson

Never had an Adelaide in Adelaide, I take it? Sydney in Sydney?

[ChrisV]

I think this name-city match is a first for me. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone named Adelaide.

[Melkerson]

I have met two Adelaides, that I can recall (neither Australian).

I’ve got a Houston in Houston on my list. That my only one.

[MrWookie]

I at least hope the (admittedly fairly long running) trend of using surnames as first names dies a timely death some time soon, but I am not terribly optimistic.

[NotBruceZ]

I once had this idea for a children’s book mocking the use of surnames as first names. Yet another book I never wrote.

[Bobnewton]

Day 10. It’s me and my 32 year old BIL driving south on the A1 into Naples with Vesuvius looming. Our destination is some spot on a flat map in the middle of the peninsula south of sorrento. But it makes no sense as we wind up the switch backs and through miles long tunnels overlooking the bays on either side. We’re blasting GirlTalk All Day with the windows down in the a6, at every new bend in the road a new amazing view of the coastline appears. We’re giddy. Screaming our heads off like lunatics. We’re climbing so quickly it’s hard to imagine there’s more hill available, there’s seemingly water in every direction. And yet there’s another turn and another climb.
Finally We’re close to our destination. Google wants to take us the wrong way down a one way and the internet is out and it won’t reroute. We’re lost. One simply does not take wrong turns in this area. We spend about 40 minutes learning that lesson. Side roads get skinny, then turn to scooter paths at weird angles then end bordered on three sides by stone walls 6 ft high. We back out of a couple of these gingerly with our hands manually folding side mirrors as needed. We get gas and regroup. We think we know which turn we have to make next, it’s a donkey path leading under an arch that appears to be a one way. The wrong way. The idea seems to be, you double park on a blind corner and when an inch opens up you just go for it. Once you get to the archway, it’s too late to go back, so if anyone else is there, bigger car wins.

It works. I toss the keys in the dish. I’m out. The other crew picked up 2 vans in naples and scratched up the mirrors already. This is Vespa territory. But tourists here in anything bigger than a fiat panda is insane.

This villa is interesting. It’s not as stately as the mini castle in tuscany but it’s almost as big and has 2 acres of yard with terraces of olive, apple, lemon, Pear, mulberry and fig. Our room on the second floor had a ceiling of 74 inches. The door jambs were all head hazards. The kitchen is on the 3rd floor with outdoor seating and views from Capri to Naples. It’s a little funky. The location is good in theory. 25 minutes to sorrento or positano or a number of little beaches.

We ate more great pasta and some pretty good pizza. Francos in sorrento was pretty good but our neighbor Vito came over and made a bunch at our house for us and had a really good crust that he topped with a cold caprese salad, just perfect tomatoes and this thick and squeaky but tender mozzarella. Excellent. Also his specialty, a red sauce with mortadella and aged provolone, great combo.

I make a lot of pizzas at home. I was hoping to visit mecca and learn some new tricks. But most of the pies we had were pretty uninspiring. And that was a disappointment especially since amazing tomatoes are pretty ubiquitous and that’s half the game.

We ended up doing day trips to Positano and Capri. And a chartered boat down the amalfi coast. Boats here make sense where cars don’t. Really all these places are just malls where women buy clothes that are meant to be worn in places like this so they can go to other places like this and buy more.

But it is stunningly beautiful. And by boat you can swim under cathedrals of ancient stone and history and you can eat in seaside restaurants without Disneyland crowds piled into a single 8ft wide mall way that extends for miles down to a beach 20 rows deep with full beach chairs in perfect formation. Positano is my personal hell.

It’s also where I think I got covid.

So I isolated from everyone and slept 2 of the last 3 days there. And then had to scramble to figure out what the rest of this trip was going to be.

[Melkerson]

@MrWookie

I at least hope the (admittedly fairly long running) trend of using surnames as first names dies a timely death some time soon, but I am not terribly optimistic.

I actually think that more than half of the time it works pretty well. Is Jackson really that bad a first name?

[goreo]

Train from Lake Constance to Lucerne and back was probably my favorite thing I did in Europe

[Ikioi]

Made a quick trip into Tokyo to meet up with an old friend visiting from the U.S.

While there had a frightening first-ever experience in Japan.

Japanese train travelers are famously docile and quiet. You can practically hear a pin drop during rush hour.

So it was to my great surprise upon boarding the Yamanote Line that circles central Tokyo that we were greeted by angry shouting. Looking over in the direction of the shouting voice, a yakuza figure, right out of Tokyo Vice, dressed in a loud silk shirt, gold chains and rings, dark sunglasses, buzz cut, and visibly drunk, apparently wasn’t a fan of foreigners.

Guttural yakuza Japanese is hard to grasp even for my well-trained ears, but I got the gist of it. “Fk you gaijin. Shut the Fk up and go back to where you came from…,” he snarled.

Turns out he was messing with the wrong two gaijin, well at least one of us, as my friend is a former MMA champion who, though quite placid outside the ring, with each passing second appeared to be spoiling for a fight.

Me, I was scared shitless.

The stare-down between my friend and the yakuza continued until my cooler head prevailed and I got us the hell off the train at the next stop before tensions escalated any further.

I’ve encountered my share of yakuza–identifiable as such from their missing pinky fingers–before, but never one who was aggressively hostile as this one.

[TJ_Eckleburg12]

Ok I’ll ask…

What’s with the missing pinky fingers?

[Trolly]

Yubitsume

[Cornboy]

@LFS

It’s bananas. (Switzerland) doesn’t seem real.

Just got back, and that’s what my wife and I kept saying. It looks fake. Fake hiking, fake swimming, fake views from the trains. It’s incredible.

We did three hikes - my wife likes to keep them under 5 miles so they were all relatively touristy but still a blast. Cloud cover ruined one.

We did the Stoos ridge hike which has just ridiculous views of the mountains and Lake Lucerne, alpine flowers and cows all over the place. My phone camera doesn’t do it justice.

Next hike wasn’t as successful - I wanted to go to Bachalpsee which is this beautiful mountain lake 7k feet up, but it was too cloudy that day. Still a fun hike but we got this

instead of this:

Oh well, it was the only bad weather we got.

Then we did the panorama trail hike at Oeschinensee which was outstanding, we had great weather. Cold glass of alpine milk at the top. Swimming at the bottom.

The swimming was great. I knew most of the cities you can just jump in and swim wherever - and the first day we were walking in Zurich, saw a bunch of locals swimming so I hopped in, too. They have these great badis which are often paid entry (but relatively cheap, like 5 franks), and have bathrooms, changing areas, showers, slides, docks, diving boards, etc. I love to swim so I spent a lot of time in the water at almost everywhere we went.

We stayed in Zurich 4 nights, spent about a day in the city but every other day we went elsewhere - Stoos, Basel (my wife loved the art museum), Zug, Rappenswil, Schwyz. The rest of the time we slept in Interlaken, and went out for trips from there - the hikes, Bern, Lucerne. I took a day and went canyoning outside of Interlaken - paid trip, got to rappel some and then jump off waterfalls as we climbed down a river, which was a blast. No photos, couldn’t bring my phone.

We decided not to rent a car - the train system was super easy to manage. They have a bunch of different deals, but I think the best value for a < 10 day trip is to get the Swiss Half Fare card which gives half off pretty much all travel (short bus trips or local trams aren’t quite half off). There’s a great SBB phone app that’s super easy to work with - covers pretty much all travel in the country.

Food was just fine, I’m sure we could have hunted finer restaurants. I loved the place, I’ll definitely go back some day. Good half+ of the country I didn’t get to see.