Hello again from still-pretty-hot Italy! And a slightly delayed 'Happy Labor Day' to all you Americani out there. I guess the sugar packet says it all—we indeed are living in interesting times (BTW, I just discovered that this very old expression is often misused/ misunderstood; turns out it's less of a "hope you have an exciting life" blessing and more of a "be careful what you wish for" curse!).
Summer's wrapping up here—the state/public schools have postponed their first day of classes to domani, 14 September, but my school started our classes last week! Students and teachers are equal parts eager and anxious; it's great to see these kids, in person, for the first time since February, and everyone seems to understand we're not fully "back to school" by any stretch. I'm going to keep my mask on, observe how things go the first couple of weeks, and will let you all know how it goes in a future post. In the meantime wish us luck!
But before we say goodbye to summer, I wanted to share some fun travel stuff. We've been lucky to have full mobility around Italy—with masks, socially distancing, etc. of course—and we even stepped outside the country for a few days!
As you'll remember from last year, August is time to escape the heat, so we again headed to the mountains in the Northeast corner of Italy—specifically the town of Merano near the base of the Dolomite mountains (near Austria). We booked the same amazing hotel/spa from last year. The only difference: we're still a little iffy on using the semi-ventilated trains, so we chose to drive (only 6 hours each way, basically a run down to the beach for those of us in Atlanta, right?). But this time we added a special side trip, to a place I have wanted to go for many years—Slovenia!
Why Slovenia? Weird story—when I first started teaching Economics in 2011, I had our class do a little thought experiment where I showed them a bunch of data on 15 countries around the world, with the names of the countries blanked out. The data included GDP, cost of living, mortality rates, educational attainment, % of women in government, air quality, availability of internet, etc. Almost all of the students wanted to live in what turned out to be Iceland (I get that), but a couple of students and I were drawn to this one unknown place that seemed on paper to be "heaven on Earth"—a place blessed with clean air, a low crime rate, and enlightened, well-educated people with good purchasing power. That place was revealed to be...Slovenia! I swore I would find my way to this Utopian society some day. Now, knowing we would be so close (if you can call an extra 3 hours of driving each way "close"), we had to make the journey east around Trieste, past Ljubljana, and towards the Julian Alps. We were tempted to make a side-side trip into Croatia but heard the infection rates there had ticked up recently, so we stayed the course into Slovenia.
And we were so glad we did! In particular, we set our sites on Lake Bled, one of the most picturesque places we've ever been in Europe (and not just because Rick Steves says so!). To whet your appetite, here's the Chamber of Commerce photo:
Suffice to say it's even more beautiful in person. We brought our paddle-boards and booked a small hotel (Penzione Kaps) near the lake, run by a lovely couple who were happy to store the boards for us and lend us bikes to roam around the area. The rooms were immaculate, and they served a tasty and super-hygienic breakfast. If you ever make it to Lake Bled stay at Penzione Kaps!
We took advantage of all of Lake Bled's charms—somewhat guiltily because there were none of the crowds you would normally expect this time of year. It was quite busy, but clearly nowhere near the volume of visitors they typically get at the height of the summer season. One pleasant surprise—our hotel hosts recommended three different restaurants for us to check out; they were all excellent! Slovenian cuisine was fantastic, healthy, and not expensive at all! We avoided the regional specialties (lots of pork and rabbit), but ate quite well.
Simple but clean and comfortable Penzione Kaps; BB out on the Lake, MP lakeside
A highlight of visiting Lake Bled is the short journey to Bled Island in the center of the lake. Most tourists get there via a "pletna," the famous flat-bottomed boats that ferry visitors to and from the island (piloted by skilled oarsmen who can manage the rudderless craft; they're the Slovenian version of Venetian gondoliers).
We instead paddled over, and then climbed the steep staircase to the beautiful Pilgrimage Church of the Assumption of Mary, whose "bell of wishes" (built in 1534) rings out regularly. Well, not really regularly, more like 'frequently'—unlike most church bells in Europe, it does not ring to mark the hour, or the half-hour, or the quarter-hour; it just seems to ring randomly. Or so we thought until we went up the hill and found out that for €5, you can see the well-preserved inside of the church and ring the bell—while making one (but only one) wish. So while you're hanging around the lake you can hear the bell going off all the time; very charming—I hope everyone's wishes come true!
Views of Lake Bled; Pletnas awaiting passengers on a less than busy day
A panorama around the lake and BB on her paddle-board
Our stay at Lake Bled was too short, but it was time to head back to...probably our favorite place in Italy so far—the town of Merano up in the Dolomites! We had a coupe of options for the drive from Slovenia back into Italy, and decided to take the northern route through the Julian Alps—probably a mean feat in the winter, but an easy, beautiful ride in August. Five hours of stunning views later, we were pulling up along the Passer River, and I had finally learned how to manage serious mountains and hills driving a manual transmission.
The drive from Slovenia through the Julian Alps to Northeastern Italy
We love Merano, and were glad for the chance to spend another relaxing week at the Hotel Terme like last year. We're ashamed to say we barely took any pictures of our time around town and at the hotel! It was a quiet week of hanging by the pool, using the gym, and enjoying half-board at their great restaurant. they even dialed up some live music one night. Everyone was very careful with masks and distancing, so we felt safe to be there. The hotel even offered a free coronavirus antibodies test when we checked in (negative)...I only needed to go to the pharmacia that one time (see my earlier post!).
One unexpected highlight of our time in Merano turned out to be a little side trip we took into town one day - to the local Hippodrome Maia Bassa (aka horse racing track). It was a very mellow Sunday with six races and a few low-stakes wages. Half of the races were steeplechase (jumping over the hedges) and almost all featured a non-traditional course—one was TWO laps around a short oval, and one was a figure-eight shaped course!
Soon it was time to head back to Chieri and think about maybe one more trip before the start of school...
We know how lucky we are to be able to get around Italy these days, relatively safely. We hope we're all so lucky in the near future. Please stay safe everyone and stay in touch - we miss you all!