Living in Italy: Rethinking Life’s Routines

We ‘lived’ in Italy for a very short time this fall. Staying in apartments that allowed us to play house, we were able, for a brief moment, to experience what expats must when dealing with new cultures, customs and behaviors. 

We sampled this travel style last year in Spain and were eager to try it again in Italy.

Two apartments. Two cities. Two completely different experiences.  But each provided us an opportunity to re-think the routines of daily life.

Our first home was a warm, cozy place in Bologna,  where the owners had anticipated  our every need, right down to scotch tape and scissors.

 
Our Venice home was  functional, but lacked the warmth and charm of the first place. You can probably tell that  from the photos.

If you’ve ever lived – for however long – in another country you know that everything about daily life is sort of the same as the one you live back home, yet different.

Different, in visible ways,  like water-craft ambulances in Venice and gas stations to fill up your boat (photo below). 

Tasks as simple as turning on the dishwasher, washing machine, adjusting the heat, buying groceries and cooking, finding the ATM machine, even locking the front door were just enough different to require some thought about how to accomplish them.


Our first night in Venice, a bit tired, somewhat disappointed in the apartment and short-tempered, we thought we’d locked ourselves out of it because no amount of turning the key opened the door.
Why hadn’t we tried the lock before both of us stepped outside and shut it? How could  it be so impossibly difficult? we grumbled.

You  are probably thinking, wouldn’t it be much easier to stay in a hotel? For that matter, it would be easiest to stay home where those day-to-day routines require no thought whatsoever. 

But one of the great things about this type of travel is that it forces us to sometimes live on the edge of comfortable. 

It makes unlocking the front door a high-five accomplishment and  turns fresh bread, cheese, olives and a glass of wine – eaten ‘at home’ – into a feast.

It forces us to turn off life’s auto-pilot and rethink the art of living. It also makes us grateful for the familiarity of the home we return to after each trip. 

It’s a great way to take travel to a new level. We’ll do it again and would recommend it, but with reservations because it isn’t for everyone. 



On this Travel Tip Tuesday:  We recommend that before before booking such a stay, you ask yourself:
1.  Am I comfortable not having a front desk resource available 24/7 to answer questions, provide maps, and solve problems?  Can I figure out how to call for emergency response (medical, fire, police) if the need were to arise?
2.  Do I want to go grocery shopping and prepare some meals at home?
3.  Have I researched the area and the user reviews of the place enough to feel comfortable, if not eager, to book it?
4.  In case I find myself in a neighborhood where English isn’t prevalent, do I speak enough of the language to get by?
5.  Am I ready to live on the edge of comfortable and rethink the routines?

If You Go:  We booked both our apartments through the on line rental agency, Vacations to Go.  Another similar site is HomeAway.  Both these websites offer user reviews, but we often check TripAdvisor as well.

Have you ever traveled on the edge of comfortable? If so, where was it that made you re-think routine?

In Venice You’ll find The ‘Spritz’ of Place

Travelers often search for the ‘spirit of place’ ~ that elusive sense of something -  often intangible - that gives each place its unique identity.

In Venice we found ‘the Spritz of place’ a most tangible (and tasty) bit of identity.

You couldn’t miss it.

The bright orange drink, served in stemmed wine or short stout water glasses, was being consumed it seemed everywhere we went.

Neither the time of day nor the location - sidewalk cafes or standing at the counter of a neighborhood bar – had any bearing on consumption.

So it seemed fitting on our first evening in Venice to do start researching this beautiful beverage.  With a medley of Johnnie Cash’s mournful songs wailing from its speakers, we settled in for sunset-watching along the Guidecca Canal at Al Chioscchetto bar.

The popular spot is a small kiosk from where drinks and sandwiches are served to those sitting at its scattering of waterside tables. It was here we had our first taste of this nectar-like aperitif; the Venetian Spritz; a drink so popular that it has been called “The National Drink of Venice”.

One  Facebook page claims that it ‘not a drink, but a way of life.’ Another says that sipping one at this bar is a great way to  stare in compania, hang out and blend in.  So that’s what we did until Aqcua Alta forced closure of this bar and we enjoyed our daily tradition elsewhere.

One of the favorite parts of our stare in compania at this place, however, was watching Keo, the ‘bar dog’ as he greeted and was adored by patrons and passersby:



But even he had to take a break and enjoy an aperitif:




The ‘spritz of place’ story doesn’t end there though. . .





. . .I’d been researching the drink for this blog post when I came across the mention of a fund-raising project at Guidecca, the women’s prison that was tied to the drink . . .

. . . the screen printing and sale of canvas ‘Spritz bags’. 

In addition to the production of these bags, inmates tend an organic vegetable garden within the prison’s walls and sell their produce, outside the walls, each Thursday on Fondementa della Convertite.  They’ve created a line of toiletries and lotions, some of which use the plants grown in their garden.  They also run a laundry for a local hotel.  Inmates generate income and also develop job skills during their incarceration, all of which sound like a recipe for success  to me.

Speaking of recipes, here are some variations of the drink recipes printed on the back of the bag:



Campari, bitter, or Aperol is the key ingredient in this yummy drink .  The orange one – our favorite -- is made with Aperol and the recipe on the back of its bottles calls for three parts Prosecco,(that bubbly Italian wine) two parts Aperol and a splash of soda. Garnish with slice of orange and a green olive.

If You Go: 

The bar, Al Chioschetto, is on the Zattere in the Dorsoduro. It is popular spot, especially in summer months when live music is featured, but shutters up when bad weather or high water hits.


We found the Guidecca-produced canvas bags (7.10-euro) anda large selection of skin care products at the Aqua Altra Societa Cooperative Sociale store at 2898 Calle Della Scuola, near Campo Santa Margherita in the Dorsoduro. (Across from the entry to the Scuola).

TPThursday: Hauntingly Beautiful Venice

While Halloween’s celebrations in the United States came to an end last night, All Saints Day celebrations begin today in cities around the world.  Venice, where we were last week, is among those places observing this more reserved, somber day of remembering the dead and departed.

With Travel Photo Thursday bridging Halloween and All Saints Day (also known as All Soul’s Day or Day of the Dead, depending on location and varying in date by a day or two) here are some of our hauntingly beautiful memories of our stay:


While Carnivale is the celebration marking end of Lent each year; a time when party-goers will bring these masks to life, there was something about those sight-less eyes peering out of window displays that gave a ghost-like feel to them. . .



The city is filled with statues of heavenly saints.  This one, deformed by time and the elements, gazed with blind eyes on visitors in Venice’s Music Museum.  Or was he still able to keep an eye on the visitors like me who aimed their cameras at his weather-worn being?



This skeleton is a modern art installation at the side of the Grand Canal – his sightless gaze as spooky as the saint’s above.

Ever notice how your imagination comes to life in the dark? As our lone  footsteps echoed on the walkway we thought we heard the voice of an opera singer.  The music seemed to come from someplace above us. . .but from where? It wasn’t recorded, but was it live?

We’d not finished pondering the source of the music when a large rat scurried past me and hurtled into the canal with a corresponding splash – now that one did give me goose pimples!

As we walked along that dark canal route between the restaurant where we ate and our apartment, we came upon another mask shop with these two fellows looking out at us. The song, Music of the Night from the musical, Phantom of the Opera, came to mind:

". . .Open up your mind, let your fantasies unwind

In this darkness that you know you cannot fight

The darkness of the music of the night. . .”

That’s it for Travel Photo Thursday. Head over to Budget Travelers Sandbox for more photos.  We’ll get back to more practical matters in the coming week with posts about a new guest chef on the Celebrity ship, a don’t-miss-this-restaurant in Bologna, and who to call for tours there and give you a ‘spritz’ of place in Venice and a taste of KLM’s Business Class Food and Wine Celebration. . .

Venice: Acqua Alta: Water, Water Everywhere

The obnoxiously loud– not-to-be-ignored-but-totally not-to-be-understood– alarm sounded in the dark early morning hours yesterday bringing us out of a deep sleep into a most confused state.

It sounded again at 6 a.m. today, but today we were expecting it.

Porca Miseria!
(Literally translated: pig’s misery. Slang: anything from “What a shame!” to “Oh, shit!”)

This time we counted the blasts and sound levels just like the residents; today we knew it was announcing: acqua alta, high water or in English, flooding. The number of blasts and levels tell you how bad it will be.

Those picturesque canals in tourist brochures turn ugly and  flood between late October and February each year we’ve learned. Sometimes as often as once a week – we get a double dose this weekend.

To show you what I am talking about, this is the view of the Zattere, the morning we arrived. I took this from a corner cafe where we sat at a sidewalk table sipping coffee:


This is a photo below shows where our table was on Tuesday and the narrow elevated walkways that accommodate two-way pedestrian traffic to and from the water taxis in this case (those able to operate, that is, during the high water):


And this is the view from my corner cafe spot yesterday (taken from the elevated walkway):



(Sorry it’s blurred, I was being jostled by people bouncing the walkway as they eased past me – you are not to stop and take photos, but I wasn’t the only tourist doing so!)

The most popular tourist item yesterday were the stands that materialized it seemed from nowhere selling 40+euro rubber boots:


So we are now debating packing up and leaving as soon as the water recedes today – should it happen again tomorrow we may not make it to the airport for our mid-morning flight.

Porca Miseria!

The Scout has found us a couple of options: either heading to Treviso, a town on higher ground or the Marriott at the airport (not as charming as the Zattere, but on high ground). 

We were assured by the cafe owner last night that we wouldn’t have a problem with acqua alta on Monday because the borsa would be here: that’s the North wind from Siberia. And from the way the leaves are swirling outside the window, I think it arrived early.

Porca Miseria!

Ciao! Ciao! Celebrity ~ Hello Harmony

We said farewell to our floating home, the Celebrity Silhouette, on Tuesday and have set up our Venice ‘home’ in an apartment called Harmony.


We arrived in Venice in the early morning, gliding through the darkness on the Guidecca Canal toward the cruise terminal as quietly as the gondoliers who ply the waters of the nearby Grand Canal. (I was among the die-hard 'arrival fanatics' who were up at 4:30 to view our arrival.)


The ship stayed overnight, so Wednesday afternoon we toasted our old friend from our neighborhood waterside bar as she set sail at sunset to retrace the steps that brought us here.

Our home this week, an apartment rented from the website Vacation Rental By Owner, is in the Zattere; an area away from the concentrated hordes of tourists; a place so down-home that the man at the corner bar knew we wanted our ‘two Americani coffees’ this afternoon when we walked in and we’ve only been there twice since our arrival.


This is ‘our’ street – we enter our building through the second door down from Joel.  We are on the first floor (that means second floor by US terminology). Our apartment isn’t as cute and warm as the one we rented in Bologna; but it is spacious, clean and functional – and a fraction of the price of hotels here.  So we are in ‘harmony’ with our digs. (Yes, pun intended)



The kitchen is both the living area and kitchen as the television is against the right wall in this photo.  The bedroom, bath and second bedroom/den down the hall.


The Zattere is exceeding our expectations; we stroll this section each day to get home.  (BTW, that large ship is a private yacht.)  The only problem is that the days are rushing past far too quickly.  And there’s a lot of city here to explore, so ciao for now. . .I’ve gotta get going!

Monday Meanderings: La Dolce Vita in Venice

An early morning shopping trip to the famed Rialto Market where we’ll stock up on fresh fruit and vegetables from the stalls of long-time vendors, then we’ll laze away the morning sipping cappuccino at one of its many cafes while ‘people watching’ . . .

In the evening we’ll stroll along the Zattere, the large concrete promenade that runs the length of the southern shore of Venice’s Dorsoduro District. It was originally built in 1519 to be a landing dock for the delivery of timber to build ships and buildings.  Zattere, Italian for raft.

Dorsoduro

We’ll be acting just like the locals with our shopping and strolling because for six nights we’ll be ‘living’ in Venice in an apartment we rented a month  ago as we planned how to fill the week following our cruise from Rome to Venice. The apartment is in the area of the red pin on the map.

We’ve found that one way to save travel dollars is to avoid the more costly hotel rooms – and Venice certainly has plenty of those.   So, after having enjoyed the apartment we rented in Madrid last year, we decided to try our luck with apartment living in Italy. (Maybe it is our way of working up to a longer stay somewhere, sometime. . .)

In addition to saving money on the accommodations, we’ll also eat a couple meals a day at home and not rely on the local bar for all our Happy Hours.

Of course renting travel accommodations based on books, photos, traveler’s recommendations and advertisements is always a giant leap of faith.   Joel, “The Scout” began researching our options several months ago.  When we found this apartment on Vacation Rental by Owner we were on our way to . . .

. . .La dolce vita; the sweet life, in Italian.

Have you any tips for us?  Have you rented an apartment? If so, what was your experience?  Add a comment below or send an email to us at travelnwrite@msn.com  And if this is your first visit, hope to see you back on Thursday when we look at the Joy of Travel.

Three phone calls later: Singapore is Rome

Regular readers and those who know us well won’t be surprised to learn that we’ve changed travel directions again.

The winter’s “Big” cruise from Singapore is now the autumn cruise  from Rome.

All it took was a couple of phone calls.  Really, it was that simple. Proving, once again, that planning travel really isn’t that difficult.


The original plan: Frequent flier airline seats to and from Asia. A Celebrity cruise from Singapore to Sydney, a few days there (using Marriott points), then off to Bali, returning home a week later . Yikes – that put us traveling two days before Christmas! (Read that: the dreaded holiday travel.)

We were looking forward to the Asian Adventure, but. . .

While in Mexico we had plenty of daydreaming time and started discussing other destinations that we want to visit in the next couple years. . .

Then, back in Kirkland this week Joel happened upon the ‘perfect’ Celebrity cruise – beginning in Rome, ending in Venice, with stops in Montenegro, Croatia, Greece, Malta and Slovenia along the way. If only we weren’t headed to Singapore. . .
 

After a 24-hour ‘ponder-the-idea-period', Joel checked on availability of frequent flier seats, which was key to any changes, with airline prices being what they are this year. Two calls to Alaska Airlines in as many days and we had seats and a good routing to Europe.  He nabbed them after cancelling the Cathay Pacific business class seats to Singapore. We’ll  fly business class on KLM to Rome and back.

The third phone call was to CruCon Cruise Outlet (the travel agency we use for booking cruises because they’ve had the best prices and on-board goodies). They moved our $200 deposit from one cruise to the other, we’ve now got a balcony room on the Silhouette; incurring no penalties and getting the same on-board credits and other goodies as we had on the other cruise.

Then he cancelled our Marriott ‘loyalty points’ reservation in Sydney and used them to book a five night stay in a Marriott “Autograph” Hotel in Venice. (Use of those hotel points in Venice saved us approximately $1,700!)

We were excited about the Sydney experience; but we are plain crazy about this new adventure. Joel’s dug out the Lonely Planet guidebook to Slovenia to get the research started. . .I ordered a new Baggallini roller tote from a discount on-line shop.  Let the fun begin. . .