I just updated my other blog LeftoverQueen.com with a post about our visit to Venice, Italy !!!

Venezia- gondolas-duomo-venetian masks

Highlights of course were Piazza di San Marco, the Gondoliers, and the amazing and thriving shops all over the city dedicated to the celebration of Carnivale – full of elaborate masks and costumes. Venice really is an enchanting and romantic city -made up of tiny canals where most people travel by foot or boat (no cars) full of tiny shops, cobblestone streets and the most amazing architecture.

The next day we headed to Tuscany and specifically to Torraccia di Chiusi right outside of the beautiful and medieval village of San Gimignano. The Torraccia di Chiusi is an amazing place. The accommodations are exceptionally beautiful and the views from the villa are stunning. All you foodies out there should go, just to experience Chef Bruno’s cooking. He is an absolute genius in the kitchen and of course prepares traditional Tuscan cuisine using fresh and seasonal ingredients that they produce right there on their farms. He also enjoys preparing Etruscan and Medieval cuisines if you are so inclined. He was a joy to spend time with each evening at dinner, hearing his food stories and about life in the Tuscan countryside.

San Gimignano- entrance to san gimignano – us with chef bruno – tuscan hills – view from our room

From the Torraccia di Chiusi we made several day trips. Our first was to Firenze, or Florence.

Firenze – duomo – motorini – duomo

It was a pretty cold and gray day when we went, which didn’t make it so enjoyable. Although our good friends Erin and Chris from The Olive Notes spent a year living in Firenze and so they had given us an extensive itinerary of things to do while in Florence – mostly involving food of course, and seeing some of the major sites. We weren’t able to do it all, but I will discuss the highlights in an upcoming post.

The next day we headed to the medieval city of Siena which is famous for the Pallio a horse race that is done in the center of town, that is a scene of not only sportsmanship, but also huge political rivalries. The Pallio really defines Sienese life in so many ways.

Siena – duomo – lions head detail – the campo

When we visited Siena it was a nice a quiet day. The city is very charming and was probably my favorite. It was easy to navigate and the architecture there was so unique. I really enjoyed traveling the ancient streets and stairs.

After five idyllic days in Tuscany we had to head south to Rome, for some family time. Roberto doesn’t make it home very often, and so we had to make sure to go to Rome where his family lives.

Roma – forum – colosseum – pantheon

What can you say about Bella Roma? It is an incredible place. Going from the more medieval towns of Tuscany to a truly ancient place, like Rome was an amazing chance. In Rome you have the ancient alongside the most modern. From the Pantheon, the Colosseum and the Forum to Via del Courso where Prada and Dolce Gabbana live.

Roma – trevi- bronze angel- piazza di spagna

The enormity of the buildings were breathtaking, and photos will never do justice to these ancient and modern buildings, fountains, and structures – everywhere you turn is a work of art, or some kind of major human accomplishment…and the FOOD. The food throughout the areas of Italy we traveled we all amazing, but in Rome, it is just abundant – markets, green grocers, cheese and meat shops. It is unending. Oh and did I mention the gelato and coffee? Those are whole posts to themselves.

Our final four days were spent in Ostia, Rome’s seaport.

Ostia – ostia antiqua – port of rome – il mare

Ostia Antiqua is nearby and again, everywhere you look are ruins. Ostia is reminiscent of Saint Augustine, on a much smaller scale. But it was nice to end our visit with a place that reminded us of home, and where we were surrounded by family.

On a personal note, I will be traveling to New England through the end of October, and will not be updating the site while away! But look forward to more articles in November!

Madeira – Tropical, Mountainous and Lovely

Article and Photos BY: KARI HOEL

The trip to Madeira was decided during a conversation between my husband and I sometime in June, when the holiday was coming closer. “Kari, I have been thinking: What if the weather in Norway this summer turns out as terrible as it was last summer? It would be nice to go away somewhere warm and nice for a week or so – what about Madeira?” I smiled, turned on the computer, checked out some facts about Madeira (all very promising), booked tickets and said: “Yes, that is a wonderful idea, we are leaving 6 am. on July 7th. !“

Madeira is an island in the Atlantic ocean (600 kms off the west of Morocco) and an autonomous region of Portugal. The climate is comfortable all year around, and there is plenty of sunshine. The scenery is very diverse: It is rocky, but there are also hills, colorful flowers and sub-tropical forests. Madeira does not really have nice beaches, but Porto Santo – an island northwest of Madeira – apparently has a wonderful 9 km long beach. There are several seawater pools along the coastline of Madeira, so it is not hard to find places to swim and sunbathe. The Rough Guide Directions Madeira and Porto Santo contains lots of information about Madeira, and we used it a lot during our holiday.

We stayed in Funchal, the capital, and most hotels in Funchal are situated in the western part of the city, the “hotel zone”. Our hotel, Terrace Mar, had big rooms, a great pool area on the roof, and it was very clean. However, the street had a lot of traffic, so it was quite noisy. Fortunately, the room had air conditioning, so we were able to shut the noise out while still maintaining a comfortable temperature indoors.

Uphill and downhill things to do

We rented a car to get easy access to the mountains and get around at our own pace. Some of the roads are very, very steep. I live in Norway, a country with ice and snow several months a year, but I still have no problems driving up hills. In Madeira, the rental car stopped several times because the (stupid little) engine could not handle the hills. Fortunately, all it needed was more speed, and it got us up every time.

Pico Ruivo is the highest mountain, at 1862 m. It is possible to get to it the easy way or the hard way. We chose the hard way, going from Pico do Areiro (1811 m), where we parked the car. One might think that the altitude difference of only 51 meters made this an easy walk. It was not. Imagine walking up and down the stairs of skyscrapers, and you get an idea of how the walk was: The path between the mountains consisted of a large part of stair steps. It was a hard walk, but it was also spectacular. The scenery was diverse, and the view from Pico Ruivo was incredible. The view of the island from above the clouds was definitely worth the effort.

Hiking (or driving) is not the only way to experience heights in Madeira. From Funchal, we caught a cable car to Monte, a hilltop town overlooking Funchal. Monte has s a great botanical garden with a museum (Jardins Tropicais do Monte Palace). Walking around here is a peaceful way to spend a couple of hours.

And a quick way to get out of the peaceful mode is to catch the toboggan run down from Monte. You sit in a basket car while two “drivers” jump on and off the back of the toboggan in order to control speed (the “brakes” are the rubber soles of their shoes). It looks scarier than it is… The ride takes about ten minutes, and is well worth doing if you are in Madeira. I am pretty sure that you cannot experience this anywhere else!

A flat walk into a lush forest was a nice change to the experiences mentioned above. There are several levadas (mini-channels) on Madeira, and we walked along the Ribeira da Janela, north-west on the island. The Ribeira da Janela is a river in the valley below, and the trip offers great views of the valley and the forest, apparently UNESCO-protected.

Food and Madeira

The selection of bars and restaurants in Funchal is huge, which is not so strange, provided that this is a popular place for tourists. We were able to find some great places to eat and drink, and the Rough Guide did not let us down this time either. Unfortunately, none of the places we visited have websites.

Golden Gate (Avenida Arriaga 27-29) is a restaurant/bar in the centre of Funchal, open from early morning until late at night. The restaurant is spacious, with a high ceiling, a wonderful balcony on the first floor, and attentive staff. For lunch on the day we arrived, my husband had a salmon and pasta dish and I had a caesar salad. The food was good, but not fantastic. However, the atmosphere of the place made us return a couple of days later for dinner. My husband had a steak and I had chicken cordon bleu. This time, the food was a bit better, but it was still the atmosphere that made it a great experience.

The Quashbah Oriental Caffe is in the “hotel zone” west of Funchal. It is situated on the promenade close to a big saltwater pool (Lido), and it serves Middle-Eastern inspired cuisine, but it is also the kind of place where you can have a coffee or a drink. The food is good and reasonable, and the vegetables that came with my dish were wonderful!

Doca do Cavacas is my most memorable dining experience from Madeira. The lovely building with a big terrace is right over the sea, and the view is spectacular. This restaurant is about 5 km from Funchal, but well worth the trip. We both had scabbard fish with vegetables, and it was delicious. On top of that, the soothing sound of waves and the fresh air made this evening even more wonderful.

Bernini is a small (wannabe) Italian restaurant close to a big casino complex. It was supposedly Italian, but the pizza was American-style pan pizza with lots of cheese, not the thin crust that Italian pizzas are known for. It also had some local twists on the menu (pizzas with banana, for instance). I had a vegetarian pizza, and it was really good… in fact, we went back to this place because good American pizzas are hard to find in Norway, and I like American-style pan pizza just as much as Italian pizza (even though that is a very “untrendy” preference for young and semi-young Europeans these days).

When in Madeira, it is almost compulsory to drink Madeira Some of the restaurants served it before the meal, other restaurants served it after the meal. We also went to a place that produces and sells Madeira, Pereira d’Oliveira located on Rua dos Ferreiros in Funchal. Fortunately we had read about this place in a newspaper just before we went to Madeira, and this was a good place to taste and buy Madeira – it was not a tourist trap that sold overpriced stuff. We tried several types before we went for a Madeira from 1984 that was the second sweetest category (the types are dry, medium dry, medium sweet and sweet). The price was about EUR 35, which was not bad.

For people who seek beach life or a wild nightlife, Madeira is not a good holiday destination. Anyone besides that will probably have a wonderful time on Madeira. We certainly did!

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On a personal note, I will be travelng to New England through the end of October, and will not be updating the site while away! But look forward to more articles in November!

I have found a really great series of books on Amazon which are all guidebooks to places all over the world, but instead of just describing to you the best places to go when you get there, it also describes cultural differences as well as etiquette for a particular place. If you are inspired as I am to go to Greece someday, you should check out this book!

I would be curious to hear from Mel of Mel’s Diner or any other ex-pats living in Greece or any Greek ex-pats living in the US on cultural differences between the United States and Greece. That would be an interesting topic of discussion!

Check out this trip of a lifetime. Arrive in London, travel by motorcycle around London through the Midlands up to Newcastle, back to London. Then hop a plane to Naples and explore Southern Italy and the Islands by train, ferry and foot. This is the trip my cousin Michelle and her boyfriend Luke took this past summer and it was amazing! Luke is originally from England and our family finds its roots in Southern Italy and Sicily. So it was a “going home” adventure for both of them – one they will remember for a lifetime.

Many people travel to Italy and England. There is so much to see and do in both places. If you don’t have a lot of time, and have never been there before, it is hard to know where to go, what NOT to miss. I interviewed Michelle and asked her, out of all the places they visited, what were her top three choices. What made them so special, how difficult it is getting around various places in Italy if you don’t know much Italian, and what are the must do things in each place. Here are her answers and suggestions.

Top 3 Places:

Alia, Sicily.

Alia is about 75 km by train south of Palermo. It sits 750 meters above sea level and is home to about 4,000 people. When you depart the train there is nothing for miles around you. Michelle and Luke had to walk most of the way to Alia on foot. But it is worth it as this place holds special significance for my family – this is the village that my Grandfather was born in, so it was an emotional visit for Michelle. She said once they got there, she fell in love with it immediately. The hospitality there is unbelievable. People are extremely helpful and since they do not get many tourists they are also very curious. Even though it was hard to communicate (only about 5 people in Alia spoke English), they managed to get around and really get a feel for the place, even meeting some relatives. She said they really enjoyed the challenge that the language barrier brought and even ended up learning to communicate a little in the dialect spoken there. Apparently she and Luke were kind of celebrities while they were there – being a long lost relative in a place with little tourism.
Things to do: Hands down it is the eating. The best things to eat there are pizza and seafood. They recommend chaplin’s di chiaramonte rosalia for seafood (c/da svuchi 27 alia pa tel 091 8219368). The proprietor, Giacomo and service are great and the food is delicious!
She also recommends walking. Alia is very steep and hilly so it is a great place to relax and get some fresh air and exercise.

There are also the Gurfa Caves, which were carved out of the stone in 5000 BC and inhabited for thousands of years. Gurfah is an Arabic word meaning cave used as a dwelling.

They also visited The Church of Maria SS di Tutte Le Grazie (Our Lady of All Graces) where our great-grandparents were married and where my grandfather was baptised. The church was built between 1630 and 1639 by Signora Francesca Cifuentes Imbarbara, wife of the town founder.

Pompeii, Italy.

Pompeii is located outside of Naples in the Italian region of Campania. Pompeii, for Michelle, was a living history experience like none other. You get to bear witness to the town in its prime, which was buried alive in a violent eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD. The city was lost for 1, 600 years until it was accidentally discovered in 1748. Its excavation has unlocked the very details of life in this city, many of the homes, artworks and people are still intact. One thing to watch out for when visiting Pompeii is that none of the sites are marked. Therefore it is hard to get around and know exactly what you are seeing as site maps are available but hard to follow. Michelle said they had the hardest time getting around Pompeii not knowing Italian.

The most meaningful stops in Pompeii for Michelle were the House of the Faun where there is an intricate and statue which has been completely preserved. It is an amazing marvel that so much has been recovered and preserved. She was also moved by the brothel where the beds were still there as if everything just stood still in time. The final thing she took back with her from the trip to Pompeii are the dogs. There are many who just live at the site, keeping watch almost guarding this powerful place.

Matlock, England.

Matlock located in Derbyshire England, became a spa town, when thermal springs were discovered in 1698. The town lies on the River Derwent to the east, and sits between 2 mountains High Tor and Cat Tor, which almost vertically from the river’s edge in places as the river cuts its way through the limestone rocks. You can check out the breathtaking views from a cable car on the Heights of Abraham
Matlock is a quaint and touristy town full of chip and traditional english food shops as well as great for other shopping.

So if you are looking to go to England or Italy, these places should not be overlooked in your travel plans. Check out my Plan Your Trip Page to check flights and accommodations!

We (my partner and I) spent three days in Barcelona in the beginning of November. This time of the year is a nice time to leave Norway (the “push-effect”) because it is cold, dark and still not enough snow to go skiing. It is a nice time to visit Barcelona (the “pull-effect”) because it is quite mild, low season, and therefore possible to get a hotel room and a table at a restaurant without much trouble/waiting.

We stayed at Hotel Raco del Pi (http://www.h10hotels.com/eng/detalle_hotel.php), a hotel with friendly staff, nice rooms (although quite small) and above all – a fantastic location. The hotel is situated in the heart of the old part of the city, and most attractions are in walking distance from the hotel. And we surely walked a lot.

Some of the attractions that were well worth visiting:
• The Sagrada Familia (keep building the cathedral, Spanish people, I would love to see it finished!)
• Gaudi’s Park Güell (really beautiful and colorful, and with a great view of the city and its surroundings)
• Montjuïc – a peaceful green oasis, also with a great view. There are several ways to get there. We caught the Transboardador Aeri cable car from the harbor. Fun, but if you are not too interested in waiting 60-90 minutes (did I mention we were there during low season…I would not want to go on that adventure in mid-July!), I would recommend one of the other ways (bus, taxi, walk, funicular railway) to get there.
• Shops – what an excellent city for shopping! (Just remember that most shops are closed on Sundays. Also remember that even though you are very proud of your new cool high-heeled Camper shoes, it is not necessarily a great idea to break them in on your first night in Barcelona…)

However, the memories we cherish the most were those from walking the streets of Barcelona. The old city and Raval were the areas we found most charming. We also ate at some great restaurants in these areas, and I can recommend them:
• Taller de Tapas (http://www.tallerdetapas.com) is situated in Placa Sant Josep Oriol in the old city, and apparently also another place in Barcelona. Good tapas, good wine, good service…try it!
• Biblioteca (C/Junta de Comerc, Raval) is a place that takes food seriously. It is a minimalist-style restaurant where they sell cooking books. I wonder where they got the buffalo mozzarella that I had as a starter…I am considering buying a buffalo so that I can try to make my own and hope that it is as good as the one I got at Biblioteca. The beef fillet main course was also great.
• Las Fernàndez (C/Carretes 11, Raval) was the least memorable dining experience, but it was still fairly good. Fortunately one of the guests was able to (kind of…) translate the menu from Spanish to English for us. If not, we would have been pretty lost.

There are also a lot of nice little cafes where you can get breakfast/lunch, a snack or simply a coffee. Lots of nice pastries…

There is a reason why “everybody” we know visits Barcelona these days – Barcelona is impossible to dislike and very, very easy to enjoy immensely. Some places in this world need to be visited before it is too late, but Barcelona is a city that will be enjoyable for all eternity. And I am definitely going back once they finish building that cathedral. Or…nevermind the cathedral: I am going back anyway!

Kari