ITALY Roadtrip

[Masato]

Hey all

I'm out tomorrow for 18 days on the road in ITALY.

I have never been there.
Supposedly it's for our 25th anniversary, but I think Mrs Masato would have found a reason to go even if it wasn't lol

Can't believe it's real yet to be honest, my brain is trippin' lol

I will be back Sept 12. I'll maybe check in sometimes but honestly when I'm on vacation I tend to enjoy not going on the net for anything I don't have to.

I'm passing the proverbial keys to the kingdom to our Uncle Mega, because the rest of you are using too many question marks, linking too many CNN articles, and calling out too many fictitious alts for fights lol. He's the only sensible mofo I trust right now lol
(except Edge & Luigi, who are always trustworthy, but Mega has age seniority as far as I know. The honor is practically meaningless anyways so don't worry too much about it lol

All hail Megaterio, and all hail Anarchy

See you all Sept 12

[Masato]

I am most looking forward to the Dolomites, we will be a few days at the start of the trip in the mountains.

[Som-Pong]

Be sure to try the pizza.

[Professor Diet Butcher]

Be sure to try the pizza.

bring a can of pineapples for extra toppings. I don't think they offer that at the pizzerias there.

[dass]

Say hello to the Pope for me???!!!

[Masato]

I'm back.

Been back for a week already but had lot going on & didn't feel like getting into the computer yet.

Had a great adventure, no major issues to report we made it back safe and sound.

Here are some pics;




Arrived in MILAN.
Here was the view from our hotel:



I didn't take many pictures in Milan but it was pretty. Not very crowded, nice parks, pretty clean. Several other cities I saw later were way more trashy and dense. Relatively speaking Milan seems a nice city.

This was one of hundreds of cool sculptures and paintings you see everywhere. The churches in Italy are just amazing everywhere you go.

[Masato]

After Milan we drove to Lake Como.

I heard that's where Anakin Skywalker got married, but people keep telling me those are just fake stories

It was indeed beautiful. Lots of little towns all up and down the lake, boats going everywhere across the lake.

A paradise
















Most places in Italy, even the scummiest cities, have free water fountains to drink from all over. The water is clean and good to drink, sometimes even cold.

In places like Rome and Naples, they are for the street bums to wash their ass once a week lol. But in the pretty towns, these free water fountains are heavenly:






We took some public ferries to get from town to town. Cheap and easy.





view from the room we rented.

We booked like 16 places for the trip online slowly for months in advance, lol all of them were a surprise. Never quite sure until you get there, sometimes like this we scored. was just 15 minute walk to a cool town with ferry ports

[Masato]

Next was VERONA

There is another Arena/Coloseum here that is older than Rome's IIRC. Except this one has been restored and hold concerts and events in it.

I didn't get to see any events, just a quick daytime look, but can you imagine a classy performance of some kind in here at night? Must be amazing

[Masato]

Next day was a fortunate mistake.

I wanted to see the mountains in the far north of Italy.

We booked a place in the far north of Italy (or so we thought), but as we approached it, suddenly the signs were all in German, and everyone spoke German. 'Why is everything in German?' we asked, lol. Assuming maybe in the north of Italy people speak German.

Turns out we had unknowingly crossed over into AUSTRIA, and the place we booked was not in Italy at all, lol. There was no border crossing or anything, we just drove across without even realizing it.

Turns out, to be honest, that Austria was my favourite part of the Italy trip lol
I really loved it here, so much I think it's my #1 pick for next roadtrip. I would love to keep driving through these mountains forever.

This was the parking spot in front of the place we rented. A little classic Austrian chalet up on a wickedly steep mountainside road. This was the car I rented, a Fiat 550X Hybrid. Highly recommended, that car was great.



The sleepy town we slept near. SO quiet. The guy at the restaurant said its super quiet, off the tourist routes. But close to skiing and mountains everywhere. Another paradise imo, I could live here happily if I spoke German lol





This is a photo book they had in a little library they had at the place. Worth searching for, remarkable photos of Austrian mountain life in the past.




Hiking up in the mountains is one of my most favourite things in life. I don't need to climb Everest, just get me up on a mountain and let me walk around for a few hours and I'm thrilled.

We found a ski resort that let people use it's routes for hiking in the summer. Went for a 4 hour little tour up there. Heaven.









Then out of nowhere there was a bunch of COWS moving from one place to another. There were no herders, these cows were moving by themselves lol. Clearly I don't know much about cows.



Somebody LIVES here, the trail went through their private property. They had chickens, and there were kids' toys around, a dirtbike, etc. Obviously a young family living here.
So crazy

[Masato]

Next day we went back to Italy again, lol

This area they call the DOLOMITES. There is a national park there etc.

Honestly it felt a lot like Jasper/Banff in Canada. Just great roads winding through the mountains and forests, tourists moving through but not too crazy. I loved driving these days (unlike later in the trip when we got to the cities lol)












Found some more little hikes here. A LOT like Canadian rockies. Spooky almost how similar.






We discovered that the place here we booked to sleep was actually some sort of place owned by the Catholic Church, it used to be a house for nuns or something like that, it felt more like a boarding school than a hotel lol. So there was some group of catholics there singing when we arrived, and we all ate together in the hall for dinner. Interesting vibe, I enjoyed. Wine was ridiculously cheap and good and plentiful. I think they had their own stash somewhere at the place because they served everyone tons generously.







They had some roads behind the place, a huge property I went for a walk. Catholics must be rich