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The Joys of Half-Pension Plans

10 Oct

10 October 2026.

Sitting down to a dinner that the hotel has chosen for you is a delightful surprise. The night we arrived at AlpenHotel Panorama we had no idea what the menu would be since we arrived only a couple of hours before it was served. Our first evening this was the menu:

Gala Dinner

Aperitif

Homemade whole-grain bread

Amouse Bouche

Porcini mushroom “cappuccino”

Pumpkin Risotto with Amarettini and “Coppa”

Beef sirloin steak with Celery cream and Courgette

“Baumkuchen” roll with Amarena cheery ice cream

It was scrumptious. Every sip and every bite, although we substituted vanilla ice cream with warm raspberries for dessert. They started with an aperitif on the patio in the astronomical twilight: a glass of wine from the Alto Adige and small nibbles from the kitchen. It was dark enough that I could not tell exactly what I nibbled; it was all delicious. But then we’d not had lunch…

Moving indoors, the amuse bouche was served (and eaten before I thought to photograph it) and our personally selected wine was opened, followed shortly by a cappuccino: not the coffee beverage but a doppelganger made from porcini.

Cappuccino of porcini soup.

Each portion is small so eating each is not a hardship. A tiny portion of risotto is followed by a modest serving of perfectly cooked sirloin. And yes, celery cream is delicious.

Sirloin on a bed of celery cream with zucchini

And so we made it to dessert, polishing off our excellent of local Blauburgunder (aka Pinot Noir). We were satisfied, not stuffed. We slept well.

Each night is different. While we tend to go with the daily chef’s menu, there are options that appeal to different palates. There is an ala carte menu where Pasta al’Pomodoro (pasta with tomato sauce) is usually offered, which is a good choice for a fussy child or someone with a gimpy tummy. Or for the die hard fan of Tyrolean cuisine, there is usually Weiner Schnitzel. One night there was lasagna, and usually there is a dessert substitution as well as an alternate first course, occasionally an alternative main.

Other than the “Gala Dinner” the first night, they always start with a massive salad and appetizer buffet. This is usually our opportunity to get in a reasonable number of vegetables as they are few and far between when dining in a mountain hut at lunch!

Cream of pumpkin/coconut soup; Pork fillet with mustard sauce and rice; Cheeseburger and fries: the daily specials at Laurinhütte, Alpe di Siusi. Very “veggie lite.”

My antipasto plate with salad, marinated mushrooms, caprese and more.

One night the menu left on our table was in German. The hotel prints the menu daily in three languages. I speak Speisekarte (menu) Deutsch so it wasn’t a problem figuring out Rotkrautcreme (Red Cabbage Reduction) or  Kartoffelrösti  (Roasted Potatoes) but the translations into English can be tough to decipher. For example, another night there was a vegetarian menu with options for meatier courses. All three languages used the term “TIrtl” for one of the choices on the carnivore menu. It is a thin, round dough pocket filled with chestnut deep fried to crispy. Not exactly translatable.

Wednesday night was carvery night. Tyrolean specialties on the cold buffet were complimented by a selection of grilled pork, veal, lamb, and deer sausage served by a chef in the Zirmstube a kind of gathering room separate from the dining room. I’ve never had a better pork chop: a small roasted bone-in pork tenderloin cut to order into individual chops. Ric had deer sausage. Of course there were potatoes, sauerkraut, and more vegetables on the side. Our Italian table-neighbors are vegetarian and the chef accommodated them with a lovely looking polenta dish with gobs of cheese.

A chef serves grilled meat from a vast selection of cuts. No poultry. This is beef, pork and game territory.

The dessert buffet with three kinds of strudel plus assorted other tidbits and vats of vanilla cream sauce and raspberries. We did not skip dessert this night!

We have had half-pension at two hotels this trip and we were very happy with both. It relieves you of having to look for a place to eat. Good thing as there are few-to-NO-options outside your hotel in the evening when staying in the Alpe di Siusi. It is remote from the valley towns and the gondola serving the valley closes down at 17:00. An included dinner also lets you avoid the task of choosing from a restaurant menu that looks frighteningly like a dozen menus you’ve seen in the past few weeks.

Our final night there was choice between a vegetarian menu and a true carnivore one. I chose veggie and Ric went full meat-eater although we both started with salads. This is a great example of how the hotel made sure there were choice even though some elements are fixed. Here are the three menus we could pick-and-choose from at no extra charge.

Chef’s Menu

Salads and Cold Starters from the Buffet

Bouillon with Herb Fritters

Gnocchetti (mini gnocchi) with Cherry Tomatoes, Courgettes, and Pecorino

Strudel or Philo Pastry, Aubergine, Tomato Sauce & Pesto

Cheese from the Buffet

Buckwheat Cream with Caramelized Hazelnuts and Apple Ragout

Forest and Wildlife Menu

Venison Tartare with Pickled Vegetables and “Vinschgerle” (a type of bread)

Wild Essence (a consommé) with a “Tirtl”

Wild Boar Loin, Beans with Bacon, Sauerkraut Cannolo

The Alacarte menu this evening had a further five choices of entrees and two more desserts!

My gnocchi and strudel were to die for! Beautifully presented but tasted even better. Ric loved his venison tartare and the wild boar was a work of art. “Beans with Bacon” turned out to be green beans in a small bundle wrapped in speck the Tyrolean prosciutto. The “Cannolo” was highly inventive: a crepe wrapped around a puree of sauerkraut and potato.

Ric’s plate: “Beans with Bacon,” the “Sauerkraut Cannolo,” and tender wild boar.

I can hardly describe how good the Buckwheat Cream dessert was: a pudding made with buckwheat, formed into a perfect wreath decorated with caramelized hazelnuts, finely diced apple compote and other tiny pleasures. If I had seen it on a restaurant menu I would have dismissed it as weird. Now I want another one.

After five glorious nights of half-pension (BTW the breakfasts are quite lovely with a buffet of cold options and eggs cooked to order) we are ready for some simpler suppers. We transferred  to Ortisei and a self-catering apartment where I will make simple dinners and focus on fresh vegetables but leave room in the dining-out plan for excellent pizza and Italian specialties.

A few years ago I wrote about Road Food https://girovaga.com/2019/10/29/road-food/ and what I prepare in self-catering accommodations when we are on an extended stay. Not much has changed although a few simple sheet-pan dinners are among our favorites (thanks to New York Times Cooking).

I would kill for some American bacon about now, though.

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Hidden Venice (and other miscellany)

3 Nov

3 November 2025.

Venice doesn’t call to me, she screams at me to come and visit. It’s been four years since we last cast eyes on La Serenissima. You’d think after 11 visits we’d have seen all there is to see. Since we were staying an hour down the train line (Ferrara) and the day was fall perfection, we hopped a Frecciarossa and made the count an even dozen.

The challenge was to find something unique away from the crowds at San Marco and Rialto. Thanks to the 2025 Architecture Biennale, I found a walking tour that took us to places we did not know you could access, in particular, the Arsenale, which used to be off-limits except for The Biennale exhibits held in the Arsenale South. Now the northern section is open on a limited basis and the route to get there is astounding.

A brief historic diversion is in order if you do not know what the Arsenale is. It dates to 1104 and was the shipbuilding center of the Venetian Republic and lasted until Napoleon ruined things in 1797. It was the largest industrial complex in Europe before the Industrial Revolution. Wikipedia has a fine synopsis if you want to know the details and see some renderings. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venetian_Arsenal. Click on any picture for a better view..

The Arsenale: The approach to Tesa 105; Art in Tesa 105; Inside along the tese (old workshops); Waterfront inside. Imagine Venetian ships being built here 1000 years ago. Notice NO CROWDS.

The walking tour is called “Castello, Naval Art and Traditions.” No, it is not a Rick Steves Triple Triangle Must See tour. That is the beauty of it. Instagrammers have not descended en masse. Monday to Friday from 8:00-17:00 you can visit through Tese 105, an exhibit space and bar on the north side.

How you get there is circuitous, and that is the fun of a Venice walk, zig-zagging down various calle, up and down countless bridges, discovering new-to-you sights, second-guessing your location and direction, taking more pictures than you can fathom. We saw very few people anywhere on our route and most of them seemed to be local residents. We especially enjoyed the elevated metal walkway along the Laguna Nord wall of the Arsenale. Perfect waterfront view and luckily not a windy day or it could be a mite unpleasant. Click on any picture for a better view.

Top Row: Baroque Church in a narrow calle, far from the crowds of San Marco; A sotoportego (underpass) with a shrine dedicated to the Madonna for ending the plague in 1630; The Plague Stone is the only red stone in Venice and is said to bring bad luck if you step on it.

Bottom Row: The metal walkway along the imposing wall of the Arsenale; View of Murano from the walkway.

The tour is described in detail here https://events.veneziaunica.it/en/things-to-do-in-venice/itineraries/castello-naval-art-and-traditions. Full disclosure: we skipped steps 9 and 10 as we’ve toured the tail of the fish several times before. Click on any picture for a better view.

A few more Venice pics on a delightful October day with glorious light.

Top Row: Grand Canal view; Quiet canal; On the Guggenheim’s terrace. Middle: Selections from the Guggenheim Collection; Bottom: Peggy’s view of the Grand Canal.

This portion of our trip, two weeks in Ferrara, was day-trip centered. We dislike, in general, a lot of short stays of 2 and 3 nights, preferring a week, or more, as a base. In other words, SLOW TRAVEL This has served us well in hiking locations like Ortisei and Lauterbrunnen as well as in cities like Paris, London, Rome, and even Venice. In those places we’d head out on a hike or out to see a sight, returning as needed to our digs for meals or just to rest. Doing day trips from Ferrara, however, was challenging as we had several very long days door-ro-door with significant transit time. The good news is, that transit was by train. The downside is that a lot of the trains are regionale, meaning “local” trains that transport people to work and school and stop at many many places and ae often full of high school students.

Upside? We had a great apartment and delightful host. I got to speak Italian quite a bit as it is not a prime tourist destination. I don’t think I heard one native English-speaker until our last night in town, and she was married to an Italian raising bi-lingual children.

The food in Ferrara was excellent: cappelletti with pumpkin and ragu, pasticcio, and a tremendous pizza at Settantatrepercento, aka 73%, the percent hydration in their perfect crust.

Ferrara is a very old city with an interesting history involving the Dukes of Este and the Papal governance after the duchy failed to produce an heir. We had great food and an insightful private walking tour. We walked the entire ancient perimeter wall (mostly intact) of about 6 miles, and saw an amazing Chagall exhibit that happened to be in town. We filled in with myriad day trips by train: Padova, Ravenna, Florence, Bologna, none of which had we visited in many years. Truly enjoyed seeing them again. Those mosaics in Ravenna! The Scrovegni Chapel in Padova! Florence was not as crazy with people as we feared it would be and we found a delightful trattoria where it seemed mostly locals were lunching. Venice still screams at me to come back and spend a few more nights. Click on any picture for a better view (unimpeded by captions).

Path on top of the 500 year old Ferrara wall
The wall from path below. Most of it is intact.
Lovely, level path for cycling and walking.
Ferrara city plan, depicting the city of the 17th century.
The chevron bricks on the right installed in the Este duchy. on the left, the cobbles of the papacy which dominate the streets today.
On our tour, outside the cathedral.
It is still spritz season! We found “our” bar in Ferrara the second night.
Outstanding pizza at 73%.
Trattoria di Noemi became our favorite.
Intro to the extensive Chagall exhibit.
Chagall’s “Russian Village,” 1929. Charming style.
School group very enrolled in their teacher’s discussion of Chagall.

Samedan, (see Graubunden Wrap-up) our first two-week leg, was excellent and probably our favorite. Lots of outdoor time, great Swiss trains, mostly good weather, well-equipped apartment and a lovely host. It’s a tiny town that does not draw tourists like its neighbors. They speak Italian as well as German, so that worked nicely.

Basel was interesting in itself, but harder to day-trip from as it turned out (see Basel Wrap-up). Everything in Switzerland was relatively easy to reach and there are cute towns and villages everywhere with ancient castles and charming streets. France was more challenging to reach due to poor transportation connections. We had hoped to spend more time in the Alsace but it was too difficult without a car. The best of the Black Forest in Germany is also a bit far removed from Basel to visit by train. To us, a decent day-trip should be within an hour by public transport. 90 minutes is OK, but two hours each way is a non-starter.

Ferrara tested our plan to try a base with regional day trips. We would not do it again and that is not to detract from Ferrara. Some of the rural places I counted on visiting by bus became impossible due to the schedules. Oh to have Swiss transportation everywhere!

We learned that we still do not want to drive. Thought about it twice, in Basel and in Ferrara, but rejected it as too stressful. In Basel, the cost of the rental was cost-prohibitive (about CHF 140.00 per day!) though the driving would have been more efficient and supported a wider range of options. In Italy, the cost to rent was not awful, but parking in Ferrara is at a premium and in some of the cities we visited by train, very hard to park as well, not to mention the dreaded ZTLs where you get fined if you enter.

We also learned that a first visit to an area should probably be in the 3-to-5 night range. Better to leave wanting more time than less. You can always go back. That does mean moving around more and less of what we see as SLOW TRAVEL. As we plan our trip for next fall, we are already thinking of visits to some of our favorites again, after a year off from Ortisei and Lauterbrunnen. But we’ll add in some new stops as well, as we continue to look for more places to call “favorite.”

We wrapped up with a pre-flught stay in Milan, which is usually an annual stop for us. We have a favorite hotel and a restaurant we have dined at for over a decade, but this year we discovered a new-to-us restaurant called Velavevodetto. The original, Flavio Velavevodetto (Flavio, I told you so), is in Rome but we never managed to get there during our residence. We love Roman food so a tram trip across Milan on a pleasant October evening was appealing. It was terrific. Have to arrange a stop there again next fall.

Elegant interior, lots of wine.
From the menu, the philosophy.
A Roman suppli, a bit like an arancino.
Even Ric’s tripe looks delish.
My pollo alla Romana
Velavevodetto means “I told you so!”

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What I do after a European trip

20 Jan

20 January 2025.

Getting home from a trip there’s a lot to do in a jet-lagged state: unpacking, laundry, restocking the pantry and refrigerator, doing the delayed fall garden chores, convincing the cats we still love them.

But the real work starts once jet lag passes: organizing photos and updating our books. This takes hours and hours to ensure the accuracy of every recommended URL, the schedules for buses and lifts, the most recent transportation pass offers, and to write up new hikes and changes to prior recommendations. Ah, retirement! But this is a job.

January 1 we published the 4th edition of “Walking in Switzerland’ Berner Oberland” and January 18, “Walking in Italy’s Val Gardena” came out in its 6th iteration.

For those dreaming about these locations, we offer inspiration to plan the trip with logistics seldom found concisely presented online. From transportation to trailheads, each walk or hike is described clearly so you can be certain every hike is within your ability.

Here’s a description of each book and a link to purchase in the US. For other markets, consult your respective Amazon site.

Walking in Italy’s Val Gardena

There are many hiking guides to Italy’s Dolomites featuring long treks of 4-6 hours, as well as multi-day ventures and the famous via ferrata. What makes this one so special? This is a guide to easier options for walking in Italy’s breathtaking Val Gardena! Seniors, people with children, and anyone who wants to experience the mountains but not climb them will benefit from the 23 walks that are carefully described.

We guide the hiker through the breathtaking scenery using itineraries suitable for anyone who likes to walk, likes to be in nature, and who enjoys Italy, but may not have the stamina for longer, more strenuous hikes.

This unique guide includes 23 walks in-and-near the Val Gardena towns of Ortisei, Selva, and Santa Cristina, as well information on when to visit, how to get around without a car, and sample itineraries to help you plan your stay of 3, 5, 7 or more nights. Of special interest will be the easy hikes in the amazing Alpe di Siusi.

Included are maps, directions to the trailheads, walking time and distance, where to eat along the trail, beautiful photographs, and details on how to use the system of mountain lifts and buses to access the high meadows and breathtaking Dolomite views. You will discover delightful rifugi, mountain restaurants offering shelter and great food making each walk a special expedition. In addition, every walk is accessible by public transportation!

The authors travel to Ortisei frequently exploring this mountain paradise discovering and documenting the walks to share with you so you can be certain every hike is within your ability.

Walking in Switzerland’s Berner Oberland

Switzerland’s Berner Oberland is a hiker’s paradise, whether you like easy paths or dream of attempting the Via Ferrata. This book will guide you through breathtaking scenery using itineraries suitable for anyone who likes to walk, likes to be in nature, but may not have the stamina for longer, more strenuous hikes. Seniors, people with children, and anyone who wants to experience the mountains but not climb them will benefit from the 21 walks that are carefully described. Also included are instructions on local transportation, sample itineraries to help you plan your stay of 3, 5, 7 or more nights, and suggestions for other excursions as well as rainy-day ideas.

The authors travel to Switzerland frequently exploring this mountain paradise completely via public transportation, discovering and documenting the walks. Even non-walkers will revel in the scenery as they ride mountain trains and enclosed gondola cars to amazing vistas.

What do I do after a European trip and after the book updates are published? Plan the next trip! Most likely with a cat or two in my lap.

Sven and Molly are happy to have us home.

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Holding hands in Roma

5 Nov

5 November 2024.

Every trip has a name or a theme. We have had the “Mountains, Lakes and Sea” trip of 2018 (See the trip plan Mountaintop to Sea Level ), “The Grand Tour” of 2017 (See Tourists Again), and the “We’re Back” trip of 2021 after missing 2020 due to a worldwide plague, to name a few. (See Hey Europe! We’re Back!.)

This year, in my mind, the theme was “Return to Roma” as it has been 8 years since we moved from Rome back to the US.

Scenery walking back after dinner is one of the delights of Roma. A 2-mile walk goes by quickly.

We loved our time this trip in the usual locations of Ortisei and Lauterbrunnen, and enjoyed the Italianness of Locarno even though it is in Switzerland. Wrapping up our eight weeks with a gastronomic tour of Rome, the subtitle might be “A Reacquaintance Tour: Eating our way through Rome.”

We often talked about missing Roman restaurants: Our neighborhood favorite, Taverna Rossini, the best pizza places we found and wrote about for our blog Our Weekly Pizza, the fish place we traveled an hour to-and-from it was so good, the authentic Sicilian food. These neighborhoods, walking routes, coffee bars, restaurants, and pizzerias called to us. It was time to return and eat our way through town while revisiting old haunts.

Lunch at Rossini with our friend Eleonora.
Rossini: still a fabulous ristorante.

We had not been in town for 30 minutes when my love/hate feelings welled up. This crazy town continues to perplex and amaze. A fabulous double espresso in 30 seconds for €2.00! A taxi across town for €15! Ancient sites harboring a cat sanctuary and a wealth of art-free-for-the-viewing in vast basilicas and churches. People who weave back and forth on sidewalks and narrow streets. Tour groups coming at you like a tidal wave. The buses still ghost you and are uncomfortable at best, but the taxi drivers were, to a person, polite, efficient, and helpful. What’s up with that, Rome?

My hips and back took a beating on the sampietrini (aka cobblestones). Ric and I remembered we really liked to hold hands when walking in Rome and not only from affection but to keep each other stable and upright.

A scorciatoia (shortcut) through the maze in the historic center.

The old routes came back to us easily enough. The way through Villa Borghese we walked to-and-from work; the route we took from home to Piazza del Popolo to Campo de’ Fiori to go shopping every Saturday. Some of the vendors we used to buy from are still in the same stalls.

We dined at a couple of favorite pizzerias, La Pratolina and Da Remo. Still great: in fact they seem untouched by the intervening years. Even some of the servers are the same people we remember.

Our old standby, Antica Taverna, was not as good as we remember but it has suffered a change of ownership. It was nostalgic to sit there, on an obscure vicolo, and reminisce about our many dinners there including a Christmas Eve before I was blogging, Thanksgiving of 2012, and New Years of 2014. We ate there about once a month for over four years. Taverna Rossini, the neighborhood joint where we took all of our guests, was still so good we went there twice this trip!

Finding good Sicilian food outside of Sicily is a challenge, but Siciliainbocca did not disappoint. We happened by on a Tuesday, which was couscous night. Couscous ala Pesce is my favorite memory of Sicilian food, and it was memorable. No wonder Elon Musk dines here! (The cabbie told us about Elon’s visit, but we went there anyway.) Donna Fugata wine, an octopus appetizer, grilled calamari for Ric. We left happy and walked back the 2 miles to our hotel as penance for all we consumed.

Polpo a favorite!
Siciliainboca means “Sicily in your mouth” or, more elegantly, flavors of Sicily.
Fabulous Couscous alla Pesce.

We found some fun, new places to eat as well. Lunch has always been hard for us in Italy because they like to offer big lunches of pasta and traditional main courses or pizza. We like salads and sandwiches. Two new eateries we recommend, Cabullo (3 locations) and Molly’s Garden, are a welcome change. Molly’s, in particular, appeals as they know what they are doing with eggs, and they make a delicious wrap. Osteria La Quercia was so good I forgot to take food photos. They only use fresh ingredients guaranteed by small breeders and farmers, organic companies, and seafood from the Lazio coast. (Click on any photo for a better view.)

Cabullo’s counter. Everything made fresh in house.
Cabullo sandwich with marinated beef, cicoria,and peppers on a house made bun.
Molly’s philosophy.
Turkey wrap at Molly’s.
Molly’s interior: the bar.
Puntarelle, a favorite and only available seasonally.
Near Largo Argentina, but in a quiet piazza, where food is respected and traditions adhered to.
At Al Pompiere, millefoglie.
Osteria La Quercia, a stone’s throw from Campo de’ Fiori but a world apart.

Our final dinner of the trip was at Al Pompiere, well known yet for all the years we lived in Rome we had not visited. It was our loss! Family owned and operated, the padrone waited on us in the tradition of old hosterie (osterias). Classic Roman food: puntarelle (a salad of chicory sprouts with anchovy vinaigrette), carciofi alla giudia (fried artichokes), fiori di zucca (fried zucchini flowers stuffed with cheese and anchovy, battered, and fried) and much much more.

Without fail, everywhere we dined at night we were glad we had reserved. Any place decent and not too touristy was full and tables do not turn like they do in the US.

We found our way to a leather shop we used to patronize in Trastevere. There are leather shops all over the historical center, and some of their products might actually be made in Italy, but Ciufetti is the real deal. We arrived at opening and told the owner we used to come here many years ago. He told me it has been in business since 1955, the year he was born. He and his wife now run it and are open 7 days a week! He loves it! They make all of their leather products in house and sometimes, when tourists discover them, they literally get their stock cleaned out because people recognize the value and the quality at a fraction of the prices in the tourist shops.

Signor Ciufetti at work in his shop.
In Trastevere, easy to miss if you aren’t looking for it.

The city is getting ready for a Papal Jubilee year in 2025 and as a result there is construction and restoration everywhere. All the tram lines are down. The Metro Line C is still not complete and screened fencing blocks vast sections of the historic center limiting views. There is scaffolding everywhere and it seemed like every fountain was dry and being repaired. If this was my first visit to Rome I might be annoyed at how much is blocked but we saw it as a reminder that Rome has been changing for millennia and will continue to do so.

Screening hides much of the area around the Forum as they try to get Metro Line C completed.

I planned to get transit passes for the week we are here, but they proved remarkably hard to find. Luckily, we did not invest because the buses have been impossible and after two buses did not materialize (ghosted) twice in our first afternoon, we had to find a taxi to take us back. At that point we decided to go a piedi (on foot) or take taxis. Period.

Speaking of feet, in Rome we far exceeded the mileage we had in Richmond early in the trip (see 61000 Steps). In 8 days in Rome, we walked over 56 miles and I had almost 162,000 steps on my pedometer, an average of >20,000 per day. it helps when you can’t get a bus. (Trip total on the pedometer was a respectable 950,000.)

“Bigfoot” one of the remaining chunks of a statue of Constantine, Capitoline Museum.
Gorgeous Forum view from the Capitoline Museum. We had the place to ourselves.
Cats in Largo Argentina
Examining a cannon ball and it’s damage in Palazzo Colonna.
A very small portion of the gardens at Palazzo Colonna.
Forma Urbis

I should author a book called “Rome the Umpteenth Time” highlighting the places we visited that were new-to-us. Rome may seem static, but she is always undergoing change.

  • We had, remarkably, never been to the Capitoline Museums. Underappreciated, vast, uncrowded, with amazing statuary and Renaissance art plus a drop-dead perfect view over the Roman Forum. We passed a quiet hour with few other patrons around and no massive tour groups.
  • Palazzo Braschi, Museo di Roma, offers insight into how Rome has changed over the millennia, and startlingly over the past 100 years. We had visited once in 2012, but seeing these exhibits again made me realize my annoyance at the current state of pre-Jubilee clean up is a mere hiccup in this city’s progress. It would be nice if they were not renovating all the fountains at the same time.
  • Largo Argentina, long known as a cat sanctuary, opened the sacred area in the past few years enabling one to descend to the area where the Roman senators murdered Julius Caesar. (You cannot walk in that site but still impressive!) And the cats are there too. Bonus.
  • Forma Urbis, a new museum housing the surviving fragments of a stunning marble map of Rome carved early in the 3rd Century. An 18th Century grand map overlays the fragments showing the relationship to more modern locations. Hard to understand until you see it and the lights go on. A remarkable display.
  • Galleria Colonna was another repeat. We were there in 2013, as I wrote about in the blog Rain in Rome. This time, we had dry, lovely fall weather and were able to tour the fabulous gardens which are not open when it’s wet. The gardens alone were worth the price of admission. The Princess Isabella Apartments are an extra-cost add on that we popped for and were also worthwhile. Isabella was from a wealthy Lebanese family and married a Colonna prince. She used these fabulous apartment to entertain her guests. Interesting articles here (in Italian, so use Google Translate to enable your favorite language). Il Filo Rosso Tra Beirut e Roma della principessa Isabelle Helene Sursock and Isabelle Colonna l’ultima regina.

We had a lovely extended stay of 8 nights, with mild weather, great sites old and new, excellent meals at old favorites and two new-to-us restaurants that we were sorry we could not visit multiple times. The mileage on foot helped (we hope!) defray impact of the consumption of fine Roman cuisine.

Holding hands is nice even after 40 years of doing so.

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Another Path to Lunch

16 Sep

16 September 2024.

Sundays are days for long walks and special lunches, at least while we are traveling. A few years ago, I wrote about a particular favorite, which we have now done three times (See https://girovaga.com/2021/10/03/a-path-to-lunch/) with plans to repeat as often as possible.

Yesterday we discovered another walk that led us to perhaps the finest mountain “hut” around, Rauchhütte on the Alpe di Siusi. I have read various raves about it: “Best hut! You have to go! Nowhere like it!” My cynical self said that all mountain huts are the same atmosphere, beverages, and mountain cuisine, in this case Südtirol specialties, beer, limited wine, grappa, and good coffee.  Rauchhütte is un altro mondo: a world apart.

Perhaps I should explain the concept of today’s mountain “huts.” In Italian we call one a rifugio or baita or malga, in German it is hütte. You would probably call one heavenly. We are talking real plates, glassware, and cutlery; Espresso machines and full kitchens; Clean bathrooms. They serve simple mountain food: hearty pastas, local specialities like canederli (a kind of dumpling), cheese and meat platters, polenta, game dishes featuring boar or venison, spareribs, lots of potatoes, beer, limited wines, some hard liquor. Always strudel, homemade cakes, coffee, and so on. Hearty fare. Occasionally a salad slips into the menu.

Approaching the baita Rauchhütte.

Imagine this terrace on a sunny, temperate day!

Rauchhütte defies the traditional baita. It is a gourmet experience, a wine-driven restaurant perched in one of the most beautiful mountain settings you will find. A fabulous deck, a warm and cozy dining room, stellar service, an impressive wine list, and elevated cuisine.

It was almost full when we arrived at noon. We were lucky to get the last unreserved table. Sunday lunch is a big deal and people target Rauchhütte for this special time.

Interior with views to the Sassolungo and Sasspiatto.

You cannot drive to Rauchhütte. You can cycle, hike, walk, or take a bus. We walked an hour to get there from AlpenHotel Panorama as well as an hour after lunch to — get this — ride a chair lift back to our home base! Who needs a bus?

Adding to the pleasure of the day, we are having a wintery September on the Alpe di Siusi. About 6 inches of snow fell Thursday into Friday, and Saturday was cursed with a bitterly cold wind. Sunday, the winds were still, and silence descended as it does with snow on the ground. Even most of the (few) people out were not talking much. Just enjoying the unusual scene. So did we. SIGH.

Lunch was divine. Fine wines by bottle or glass, a limited but excellent menu with many specials for the day featuring seasonal favorites like porcini or deer. Yes, the local specialities were present as well, but in an elevated manner, with the service you would expect in a fine-dining restaurant; except all the patrons were dressed for outdoor sports and had backpacks at their feet.

Ric’s lunch of canederli and goulash.

My choice: Housemade pappardelle with oxtail ragu.

Terrace wall decorated with (empty) wine bottles. They claim to have 300 labels in the wine cellar, mostly local.

A total of five miles and two hours of walking might have put a dent in the house made pappardelle with oxtail rags that I snarfed down. We will be back next year. I might even include one this in the next edition of Walking in Italy’s Val Gardena.

For those who are curious about the route and know the area or are visiting, we walked Trail #6 from Panorama downhill toward Ritsch, turning right on Trail #30 until it joins the main road at the Wiedner Egg bus stop. From there, follow the road to the “hut.” The easy-hiker way back is to walk the road back to the bus stop, then follow Trail #30, the Hans and Paula Steger Trail (also in our book) all the way to Compatsch, returning up to AlpenHotel Panorama via the chairlift.

Or take the bus if you had too much wine. That might happen next year because the wine list is simply awesome.

One of the views on our path to lunch, the magnificent Sassolungo and Sassopiatto.

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