Dining in Vicenza

I have never spent too much time on the food in Italy. That is partly because I know that Vicenza is not a big tourist destination, and a lot of the meals that we have are in homes anyway.

On previous trips, we stayed with my aunt - generally eating lunch and breakfast with her - and would have dinner with various aunts and uncles, usually their cooking. Once per trip we would go out, and it was usually a restaurant outside of town, unless it was a pizzeria. (And then they would always say that the pizza was not as good as if you went out of town.)

This time was different. Staying in the hotel, we were on our own for breakfast. The first day I got some things in the hotel store, but after that we stopped at a grocery store. I bought a loaf of bread, some prosciutto, a bag of oranges, and a few bananas, along with some bottled water, and we made our meals out of that.

We ate at houses a few times, but we went out a lot more. It still never occurred to me to take pictures of our food, though at some I took pictures of our family. On the Sunday before we went home (on a Tuesday), lunch and dinner both happened at absolutely gorgeous places with views, so I did take pictures, still not of the food. That's when I started to think maybe I should write about the restaurants.

Those both had "antica osteria" in their names, which gets translated to old taverns. The root word seems to be more like "hostel" perhaps focusing on board being provided as well, like the old public houses.

I am not sure how accurate that is for these places. The one looks like it could have started as a tavern, but the other seemed more like a converted house. Did they start out focusing on rooms and ale? I don't know.

For the next two posts, I will write about them, with lots of pictures of the place and what I remember about the food. For the other restaurants, I know the names of three of them, plus one gelato place. I may treat them all together or separate them out, depending on what information I can find.

I can try to come up with some other tips or observations, but for now I want to mention some of the places whose names I didn't get.

I had a really good Tyrolean salad in a bar one afternoon. That seems similar to our chef salad, with various protein sources in with the greens, but not tossed so much, so each type of food was somewhat distinct. That was nice because my mother said she wasn't hungry, but was wrong, and I could easily get her to try some of this or some of that. The bread was also quite good.

At a cafe in downtown they did not have the thing we ordered, but they ended up bringing us couscous with chicken and vegetables (mainly green beans). That was also good, and I might try making it here some time.

You can get good meals at pubs and cafes, but it is more likely to be a single course. If it is an actual restaurant, there will probably be primi piatti and secondi piatti - first and second courses, with it being typical to order from both sides of the menu, but not strictly required.

We went to at least one restaurant that appeared to change the menu seasonally, based on the featuring of asparagus in almost every dish, and its availability at roadside stands. Apparently asparagus and cherries are both in season around the end of May. It would be interesting to see how their menu changes over the year, but that was also the most expensive place we went to. (I know as the guests we weren't supposed to notice, but that was the only place I felt guilty.)

The other thing that is worth mentioning is that while I can only tell you the name of one gelateria, we had gelato many times. That's one great thing about being in Italy in warm weather: gelato is mandatory.

Soave

Like Marostica, Soave has an upper castle with walls extending down.

Not that it is really possible to capture that with anything but aerial photography, but you get a great view of Soave on the way from the Verona Airport to Vicenza. The first time I saw Soave I thought it was Marostica, but my uncle told me it was Soave, and they were famous for their vineyards. The internet tells me that their wine is arguably the most famous white wine in Italy.

Perhaps because of that, there is less of a tourist feeling there than in Marostica. There are shops below, but they are mixed with homes and civic buildings and people going about their business.

Still, from almost every vantage point, you can see those magnificent walls, lovingly embracing the hill and encircling the community.

http://www.tourism.verona.it/en/enjoy/history-heritage/castles-and-fortresses/castle-of-soave

Marostica at Cherry Festival Time

I  have written about Marostica before. The last time I was there was on that trip before I learned the joy of owning a digital camera.

http://sporktogo.blogspot.com/2015/06/italy-marostica.html 

It is nice to be able to include some pictures of the upper and lower castles.

Some things were new to me for this trip. I remember the life-size chessboard, but not the smaller but still pretty large one.

I also do not remember some of the displays and cutouts that are now there, though we had some fun with them.

There were two main things that were different about this visit. One is that we did more looking among the shops. I am not sure if the shops were there before, or if we just didn't browse. (We were there pretty early in the morning that last time.) There were boutiques, bakeries, butcher shops, and furnishings. There were some that seemed to primarily have souvenirs, but that was not the overall focus.

 My favorite was Sizi (Prêt a porter), which had beautiful clothes at reasonable prices. The window display was attractive, but we also noticed the shop because she called us in to give us cherries.
That was the other big difference. It was the Cherry Festival. (Last time I went in October, 2006.)

There were many fruit stands on the way to Marostica as well, much like summer here, but in the square itself you had people selling cherries, jams, merchandise with cherry designs, and many shops incorporated the cherries into their displays and giveaways.

One of the specialties is cherries preserved in grappa, a grape brandy that nearby town Bassano is famous for. (There is also a Sizi in Bassano, but I am not sure if they are connected.)

We brought back a cherry bread. The girls in the shop was very excited that this loaf was traveling to America.

I enjoyed my visit to Marostica before, but everything seemed more vibrant this time. I am glad I got to go again.

http://sporktogo.blogspot.com/2015/06/italy-marostica.html

When things go wrong, or not being horrible

As previously mentioned, flood control issues at JFK meant that several flights needed to be changed on the day we left. I got my notification right after I had finished check-in and stepped into the security line.

Unsurprisingly, there was a line at the desk of people who needed adjustments made to their flights.

There are a couple of points I want to make in advance. One is that our re-route led to us making our third flight, and our luggage was routed correctly so that it met us there, even though I accidentally gave him the wrong tag at first. Yes, there was some inconvenience, but I think Delta did an amazing job of getting everyone where they needed to go.

In addition, there was an older gentleman behind me who was concerned. I told him everything I knew, because it is reasonable to be helpful to each other in such situations. I only mention that because he was returning home to Manchester, and shortly after leaving him I found out about the attack in Manchester, and realized he and his wife were going to be going home to that, and it was sobering.

By and large people were good to each other. There was another couple on their way to Edinburgh getting routed through Amsterdam as well. We ended up by each other in the airport and then on the plane. When I went to get some lunch for my mother and I, I came back and found Mom with her feet up on their luggage, thinking it was ours. I tried to change that but the woman said it was fine, and then we visited and they were great people. I appreciated them.

So here's another thing about me. Although I admit I do not try as hard with my appearance as I could, some of that is knowing that my potential outcome is limited. I admire people who manage to look put together.

While I was waiting at the desk to get rerouted, there was a woman in line in front of me who looked amazing. She had a kind of a sleeveless sheath dress of a dark gray material; a short, perfectly teased haircut, and a rolling tote that was nicely cornered and neat looking. The only person I saw who looked more impressive on the entire trip was a woman in Rome wearing a white linen sheath with gladiator sandals. Still, I had not seen the woman in Rome yet, so I was pretty impressed with the woman in front of me, until it was her turn.

I'm not sure she even needed to be rerouted, because she was mainly asking for financial compensation, which the person at the desk could not provide.

Assuming her final destination was JFK, with no need to make connections, she would be arriving two hours later than originally planned. Getting there later could cause some ground transportation issues or interfere with an appointment, but she wasn't really explaining hardships so much as she was just asking for money.

I'm not even blaming her for asking once; it seems a little greedy but some people follow the Aladdin principle that if you don't ask you never know. (Just because everyone I know who practices that has been pretty obnoxious and self-absorbed, hey, I haven't met everyone yet.)

I do feel a little more judgmental of her keeping at it for so long when there were people behind her who needed to get connections worked out. I told the previous stories because they demonstrate a sense of us all being in this together; she didn't seem to feel that as much.

Where I got really mad at her was that when she gave up on getting money from the Delta employee, then she started wanting his full name. He had a name tag, with his first name, and she could have that. Realistically, if she wanted to complain, the first name, location, and time and date is probably enough to specify, but she wanted more.

I don't know if she was thinking about this specifically, but doxxing is a thing now. If you want to make someone's life miserable, it is a lot easier to do it. No one should be required to give their last name out, especially to someone who has already demonstrated such a sense of entitlement and such a lack of consideration of others.

I wanted to be different than that, so I wrote down his name so I could submit positive feedback, and then I promptly lost it, which may relate to my not having it together at all. Still, I was easier to deal with than her.

As prepared as I had been to admire her, that went downhill really fast.

Getting through customs, mainly at PDX

I have gone through customs a few times now. The process had changed a little the last time, I believe with attempts to make things easier, but with questionable success.

Experiences vary widely by country. I was looking at the possibility of bringing breakfast supplies with us, like maybe a sleeve of bagels again, but was not sure if they would be allowed in the country. I could not find any restrictions for Europe or Italy. That surprised me and I did some more searching.

On one message board the suggestion was that because Europe has been at the crossroads of trade and travel for centuries, they have been exposed to everything already and there aren't a lot of fears. That makes sense for them, and supports why island nation New Zealand - whose native fauna has been so threatened by imported species - is so strict.

Going through New Zealand customs from Australia, we lost a pack of crocodile jerky that was commercially sealed in plastic wrapping. It might have been okay in a can. Another woman was complaining that she got fined $200 for not declaring an apple she had forgot about. For them it makes sense.

I don't know if the US has to be as careful as it is, but having come through several times my primary concern is that I really try and avoid farms on vacation. I don't know exactly what will happen if I say "Yes, I was on a farm!" I am afraid that they will go through all my clothes looking for seeds and dirt, and maybe seize some of them. That may not sound like a big deal, but I don't have a big wardrobe - even having one piece confiscated would throw everything off.

When you are returning to the US, the questionnaire may be the same, but some aspects may be different. I feel like our experience at San Francisco (SFO) was better than our most recent experience at Portland (PDX), but it was also a few years ago, and then my bag didn't make it onto our next plane, so there was that.

That's one thing to know: you collect your luggage at customs. You may be getting onto another flight so have to hand it over again, but you will have your bags with you when they ask you what is in them.

One thing that means is that it takes a lot of time. One sister was planning on picking us up at the train, so planning if we landed at this time we should be on the train by this time. Ha! First of all, the plane was running late, as happened many times on this last trip, but also, customs and passport control is not fast.

One advantage of having gone through customs in San Francisco lat time was that once we landed in Portland we were done with all that. Our arrival time then was a reasonable predictor of when we would be ready (except for the time it took to wait for the lost bag, accept that it was not coming, and report it).

The disadvantage of all of it is that unless you are on a short flight from Canada or Mexico, you have probably been on a long flight and might be exhausted. We certainly were.

Now I am only going to go over my recent experiences at PDX.

The terminal for flights that require customs processing is a little bit removed. This is practical in case any problems come up or there is a need for quarantine, but it does mean once you are done you are going to have to wait for a shuttle back to the main terminal.

When the flight attendants passed out the paperwork, they said that some people could use the machines at the terminal, and explained who needed the paper form. This was a new development, and sounded like it might make things go faster.

The first thing to do was collect luggage. I got one bag and had Mom wait for it while I looked for the other one. Rude people who do not care about an old lady with dementia kept wanting her to move, so by the time I got the other bag, Mom was pretty far from the first one. I guess one other advantage of being in a separate terminal is that you only have people from your flight who are about to visit with the customs inspector there, plus staff. The odds of theft seem pretty low. They should still be able to go around her.

Once we had our bags, we are supposed to use the machines to answer questions, and then go to the person. There was a bank of six machines and a long line, beyond which I can see the customs agents. Okay, I should go up to one of these machines, right? Wrong! What I cannot see from where I am is that there is a break in the long line where there is another set of kiosks, which are the ones we are supposed to use. That was not clear at all.

I was already annoyed with people for moving my tired and disoriented mother, so I should not have been surprised by the amount of people trying to ease past us in line, but I was pretty done with humanity.

We arrived at the appropriate kiosks and followed the instructions. These included answering the normal questions (No! No farms ever!), scanning both of our passports, and both of us standing in front of the machine to have our pictures taken.Yes, you briefly get a picture that is worse than your passport picture, though they take it from you.

One other pitfall is that the machine prints out one slip per person, but there was a delay between the two, so I thought the one slip was enough. Fortunately, the next person had seen it and gave it to me when I went back to check. Slightly less done with humanity, I guess.

Then we went through an actual person, and answered questions once again. Most questions focus on food. We had bought some cookies and candies that were sealed up. There are these pastries that end up at a lot of our family gatherings which I had thought of bringing back, but was worried about their freshness. I am not sure now that they would make it through, so perhaps it was for the best. Also at Amsterdam there was a shop selling bunches of tulips - lovely, but possibly not customs-friendly.

Finally we were done, and could wait for the shuttle, to get back to the terminal, to find ground transportation, and go back to the house and die.

Welcome home!