Hotel California

Walking home from pizza (where they asked where we were from and then had to Google San Francisco to see what state it's in) we happened upon a band playing Hotel California at the Cafe Teatro - (part bar, part gelateria) and Wally being the curious soul he is we snagged the last table. The lyrics were mangled - the Doobie Brothers did not sing "Without love - better to be now." but the band did. Gotta love those mondegreens (look it up).

The long-haired singer recognizable the world over. Children ran between the tables. Young couples proudly showed off their babies. The old ladies in their sensible shoes and modest dresses sat in the back with their smiling slightly bent-over husbands. It was magic. Hotel California will never be the same.

The Road Less Travelled

We head out early in the morning, before it gets to be 90 degrees, before the mosquitoes are fully awake (we hope) and ride along the banks of the Adige.

Exploring, we chose the roads less travelled. Which sometimes leads to retracing our steps, or even (brace yourselves)

  checking the map. Whoo hoo!

In the tiny town of Carpi (think Capri spelled sideways), a town one block long with only one restaurant, Wally finds a Slow Food restaurant, Antica Trattoria Bellinazzo. 

Wally definitely has restaurant radar. The owner, Danielle, breaks out a bottle of his homemade beer. He only made ten bottles so don't get your hopes up, but he has other great hand-made local beers. We have a fabulous lunch of prosciutto dolce, cimbro, a local cheese made nowhere else and served shaved into a tiny frilly ice cream cone shape, a salami that melts in your mouth called stortina veronese, and a risotto made by Danielle's grandmother with parmigiano and cinnamon. Heaven.

Off to nap thru the heat of the day, or as Danielle calls it, un reposo. 

Villa Bartolomea

If you're going to share a ten bedroom house with twenty other people there are some basic things that will make it easier...

It's a beautiful old house on the banks of the Adige - 

with a killer entry. Remodel, anyone?

You know there's plenty of room when you can test your bike's fit...

...inside.