Amore Di Amarone

Land in Milan

Friday 5 September 2014
Land in Milan after a long but uneventful flight. It was immediately apparent that it was more of a regional airport than a huge hub like Dubai is; much smaller in terms of size and scale and traffic. Then you see the same advertising that you see all over the world; Prada, Armani, Alfa Romeo; but here they’re the local brands. And once here, it’s evident that this fashion and elegant design is part of the culture, even down to the beautiful “looks like he just stepped off the cover of Vogue” man who assisted us at the Rental Car office.

Then onto Bergamo, one hour east of Milan. What a perfect place to start our holiday. A large enough town to have sophistication and great shopping, but small enough to have a local buzz. First night I wanted some good old fashioned genuine Italian pizza. We found a pizza place and ordered two small pizzas. 20cms. But it turned out that 20cms was not diameter; it was length – or was it width? And looking around the restaurant, eating a whole pizza on your own was normal. But these people were not fat. How is it so? I always say I will return home from a holiday fatter than I start out; but usually it’s not the case – all the walking etc burns up the calories. But this trip, I fear it will actually be true.

Wine? Of course. Pizza place, in Italy. Good wine. Of course. Ordered a bottle of Francciacorta, which is considered the highest regarded sparkling wine in Italy. We thought it would be nice but were really unprepared for how spectacular the wine is. It’s really quite different to champagne, and completely different to Prosecco. And we weren’t even in Francciacorta wine country yet – yay! They offered us complimentary liquor of Meloncello and Lemoncello. We’ve had Lemoncello before, but never Meloncello. It was excellent.

Next morning go for a walk up to the old town. We were up pretty early (jetlag, you know the drill), so there wasn’t anything open yet, worried we wouldn’t find a café for breakfast. Stumble into the central piazza. Several churches and the university buildings. Wow! Absolutely beautiful. And they’re playing opera. And they’ve got a flower show on. Sit down at the only place open so early; café latte and a chocolate croissant. A young girl who looks like some modelling agency will be offering her a contract sometime soon, is watering the garden. I remark how beautiful these people are. Trevor says, “check out the waitress”. Yes, she was also beautiful.

Franciacorta - Better than Champagne

Sunday 7 September 2014
On to Lago Iseo – the lake no one has ever heard of. Lakeside view from our suite (it was an upgrade); spectacular. Wine tours of franciacorta wineries. First winery Bersi Selini, have a thirteen century estate where the monks used to live, 700 year old frescoes. The winery is surrounded by natural wetlands. Beautiful day, and only two of us at the winery having a personalised tour. The girl opened three bottles of wine for us. Plus charcuterie; €14 each. What??

Home for a nap before onto our first two Michelin star restaurant indulgence. Our only regret – we couldn’t fit all the food in. I suspect that my body was still on Melbourne time and couldn’t really face such a large meal; and then to add insult to injury they were incredibly generous in everything. Want more? Have more! Fourth course was cheese. They brought out two large trolleys covered in cheese. First estimate at say $10 a small block of say soft cheese; quick calculation, there would have to be at least $1,000 worth of cheese on this table. Did a bit more thinking about it, most of the blocks were 1 kilo each or more – there was probably $4,000 to $5,000 worth of cheese on these trolleys – beautiful Italian cheese, soft, hard, blue, smoked, goat, sheep, cow, you name it, they had it … and I could hardly touch it!  I’m a bad person. And dessert – cream ice cream. That was the flavour of the ice cream. Cream. OMG! Far and away the best ice cream ever!

Montenisa winery. Sixteenth century frescoes adorn the great hall of the villa. Wines were spectacular. They are in the middle of harvest so taking time to show us around was incredibly generous. Then we wanted to buy a bottle. The lady was almost apologetic that it was €15 a bottle! Even with the exchange rate, that was incredibly cheap. It would be like buying a top French champagne like Krug at supermarket prices. And she’s apologetic. The few places that sell these wines in Australia start at $50 and go to $150. Of course those bastards at the tax department throw a whopping 30% tax on all imported wines. Time for a revolution, I say.

Lago Iseo

Sunday 7 September 2014
Tried to see more wineries in Franciacorta, but because of the harvest it was hard to organise. So because we have such a hard life, we decided to go to the local thermal hot springs. It was a sacrifice, but someone had to do it.

That night watched the sunset over Lago Iseo from our balcony. It was one of the weirdest things we’ve ever seen. It’s so hazy here from the pollution, that the sun ‘set’ high in the sky and then disappeared behind a cloud or haze, we’re not sure which and then reappeared again. It was beautiful, but really weird. It’s good to have first class seats on the Titanic.

Next day, we stopped at Sirmione; a little peninsula in Lago Garda. It was so quaint. Like a seaside resort, but not. Castle. Fresh water. Swans. Roman ruins. We don’t get that at Rye.

Medieval Towns, Michelin Star Restaurant and Ancient Villas

Tuesday 9 September 2014
Onto our accommodation in Canale Tenno. OMG! Just like a fairy tale. Built in the twelfth century, the village is comprised of four story stone buildings. You expect some little old witch to come around the corner at any moment. And this strange fusion of Italian and Austrian. They’re really Italian, but somehow they’re really Austrian. You see something similar in Switzerland, but in Swiss in each Canton they are really one culture or the other; but here they were a real fusion. First course – pasta – cause that’s what we do. Last course – apple strudel – cause that’s what we do.

Leave Canale Tenno, we take the scenic route over the mountains and through the forests and blue-green lakes on our way to our second Michelin star restaurant, Locanda Margon, for lunch. Only one star. We’re not expecting too much. Well, ok, they are connected to Ferrari wine makers (not to be confused with car manufacturers). Ferrari wines are served at the White House. Ok, so probably good. Beautiful, blue sky day – we have gotten lucky with the weather; everyone here has been complaining that the whole summer it’s been really wet – and we sit outside to have our aperitif; the top of the range Ferrari sparkling wine.

Then into the restaurant. It’s a Wednesday so we’re the only ones for lunch. Food was spectacular, matched with local wines.

A course of gnocci. I like gnocci, I don’t love it. I loved this. Soft, delicious and covered in a wilted spinach leaf. OMG! Gnocci worth mentioning; that’s how good it was.

And the apple strudel - yes, apple strudel.

Then the restaurant is connected to a villa, just up the road, which is normally closed to the public. Trevor asked if we could go up and see the gardens. They said they’d ring and arrange it. How nice. What we didn’t expect was to get a guided tour of the villa itself.

Not only did they have four hundred year old frescos (ok, big yawn, frescos frescos everywhere), but these were really well preserved and the colours really vibrant. I love Italy.

Trauttmansdorff and Katzenzungen

Thursday 12 September 2014
The beautiful Gardens of Trauttmansdorff Castle are just outside the town of Merano in the South Tirolean Alps.

They had a garden and wine tour that then took us to Katzenzungen Castle, twelth century, where they have a 350 year old grape vine that’s still producing grapes for wine.

Then we had a wine tasting (what else?)

Oh, the hardship...

Thursday 11 September 2014
Dinner at our hotel, another Michelin Star restaurant. I know, it’s getting a bit monotonous; but what can we do? This was the dessert; chocolate potplant with popping candy. Yum!

And here is the view from our bedroom balcony:

Staying in a Castello (Schloss in the Alte Adige)

Friday 12 September 2014

Next day off to our Castle: Schloss Hotel Korb, because that’s the kind of thing we do. It overlooks the town of Bolzano, which is the capital of Alto Adige. A really buzzing old town where every second shop had a wine bar.

This whole region was annexed by Italy from Austria after WWI but they are still German. I had to keep reminding myself that we were in Italy. This is me sitting on the balcony, drinking Blauburgunder (that’s German for Pinot Noir), looking at the view.

Continuing in our self-indulgent holiday, the next morning at breakfast they offered us champagne. What else could we do?

The Dolomites Beckoned

Friday 12 September 2014

From our hotel we could just see the Dolomites. Trevor just had to go and see them. Well worth the side trip. It reminded us of Torres Del Paine and El Calafate in Patagonia but here we could drive right up to them. They are spectacular.

Oom Pa Pa – this is Italy

Saturday 13 September 2014

Stayed in a little town in the Italian Alps called Traminer. If you know the wine Gerwurtztraminer, this is where it comes from. It used to be Austria. Frankly, it still is. There is still no Italian spoken here. The architecture and way of life is more like Switzerland than Italy (Trevor sneaked in a little Swiss holiday on the side). They were having a festival that weekend and it was all bratwurst and oom pa pa. Like a little mini Octoberfest.

Michelin Star Lunch followed by Alpine Thermal bath

Sunday 14 September 2014
Went to the beautiful town of Merano (not to be confused with the Venetian glass) to have a lunch right up in the Alps at the stunning hotel Castel Fragsburg.