May 2, 2011 - Rimini

We spent the evening and stayed over night in Rimini, Italy's answer to Miami Beach. It is the most famous beach town in the whole country and it is mobbed in summer. We hit it before the season started so the beautiful rooms were very cheap. While it was too cold to go in the water or even walk along the beach, that didn't stop us from resting in the cool evening air and eating a wonderful dinner. In Rimini, seafood is the specialty. A friend recommended a restaurant that turned out to be one of the best meals I've had since I arrived...

May 1, 2011 - Evening in Parma

On Sunday afternoon, Eric and Arianna drove up from Pescara to pick me up (they live about 5 hours south of Milan). I had never met them before but some friends of mine arranged things for them to take care of me for the next two days and that they did. We drove south to Parma, about an hour from Milan and checked into our hotel. We took some time to walk around the beautiful Park Ducale there and also saw some of the beautiful buildings in town. We had a wonderful dinner that evening. We started first with a sparkling white wine, Prosecco,...

May 1, 2011 - Bologna seen from a less touristy point of view

It was incredible to know that at the end of my train ride in Italy i would have a familiar face to greet me and take care of me...the dream of someone who had been figuring out strange cities on their own all week. And that is exactly what happened! Amy met me with open arms and a plan I did not need to contribute to at all. Bologna was a great change from the other cities I saw. Amy took me out the first night while we were there, to taste real Bolognaise food, but after that we cooked in her apartment! After a week in Italy and four...

Apr 18, 2011 - Bologna

We are now in Bologna after 3 days of driving through Tuscany and the Chianti area. It was a beautiful drive great sights along the way. While in Bologna we had an "Italian Dining Experience. We toured a cheese factory where they were making Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, a vineyard where they make "Aceto Balsamic Tradizionale di Modena Vinegar" the process takes 14 years and a factory that aged pork butts for Prosciutto ham. The finale was a traditional Italian lunch with Pasta dishes, meats, cheese and pastries of the region. It was very...

Apr 15, 2011 - Bologna & Milan

So, I ended my time in Siena by wandering around until I finally got lost. I was going to attempt a daring crossing way down and then way back up to what looked like the cathedral near my hotel. Thank goodness I didn't because that wasn't the right one! I turned around and followed signs and it turned out I was only a few blocks from the main piazza. It seems that all roads lead there. Had to waste time until 7:30 when the restaurants open so I ended up unwittingly attending mass in an ancient cathedral for about 10 minutes. I felt so...

Mar 6, 2011 - Bologna

Today I woke up in Milan. I got a little bit of a late start because I made my room completely black last night so the sunlight didn’t wake me up for once. Not like I slept that late, I still got up at 7:30. I went and got the rental car. It is so cute. It’s a little white fiat. It has some really cool energy features like when you sit at a light and take your foot off of the clutch and put the car in neutral it shuts off. Then when you touch the clutch it starts back up. Needless to say that freaked me out the first couple times it...

Nov 25, 2010 - I'll have two...

We headed north from Florence (new Ikea duvet tucked away in the back; we'd seen the weather forecast oh yes). We drove up through the Futa Pass, which is about half way between Florence and Bologna, and stayed the night at a site in the pass which was pretty good apart from the lack of hot water in the showers. Unbelievable at this time of year, and it was a shame as the toilets, showers, dishwashing, laundry etc were absolutely lovely. It's amazing the difference in the quality of the facilities between sites. It's also amazing how you...

Oct 8, 2010 - Ferrara

So we rolled out of Ostiglia to a few drops of rain, and by the time we crossed the river and turn left, the rain had stopped, the sun was about to come out, and there were signs galore telling us we were on our way to Ferrara. Of course, there were no turns to go anywhere but Ferrara, but never mind. Ferrara is competing with a lot of nearby destinations, but for a couple of cyclists, it is a dream destination. We have never seen so many cyclists, ever. Riding every kind of bike in every kind of outfit, in any kind of weather. Suits,...

Sep 20, 2010 - Piacenza

If you had to pick a town to have an unplanned rest day, Piacenza is a great place to do it. In fact, it is so nice, we rested two days! Now it is lacking the great art museums, but it has everything else the big cities of Italy have, but at 1/20th the size. It is also lacking one other thing compared to other big Italian cities - tourists. As we were told "only Italians and a few Germans visit here". It does have one thing that we are starting to notice on this trip - immigrants. Many, many immigrants of every nationality, all speaking...

Sep 19, 2010 - Certosi di Pavia to Piacenza

An epic day - the beauty and the beast of cycle touring. Everything was going great, we went from our bucolic canalside to country lanes and argines (levees) along the river Po, until 15k from our finish, we turned onto a very busy road, which was expected toward Piacenza. We started gritting our teeth, but then less than a kilometer from when we entered this "freeway" a "argine Po" sign appeared, which was not expected. So without a map detailing this Argine, we chose this route over the freeway. To say the least it was a beautiful...

Aug 24, 2010 - Ravenna, Italy

Tuesday August 24 - Ravenna, Italy - Ravenna is quite a ways from the port so we had to be bused into town. We are the first ship to dock at the new port of Ravenna and the captain is having a champagne toast with the port authorities today at 10 AM. We won’t see this as we will already be in town doing our walking tour of Ravenna - home of the best preserved examples of Byzantine mosaics in the world and they are spectacular. Ravenna is a very pleasant Italian city, very clean and friendly. The city is inland, but is connected to the...

May 9, 2010 - Kort om Øystein's fotball reise til Italia

Jeg var nettopp en tur i Italia med et fotball lag fra det vi kaller Region I Olympic Development Progrem. (Region I er en av fire regioner i US Youth Soccer som består av 13 delstater langs østkysten fra Maine i nord til Virginia i sør) Laget var gutter født i 1996, så de fleste var fremdeles bare 13 år gamle. Jeg var "team administrator" som betyr at jeg var ansvarlig for alle reise planer, planlegging av trening, måltider, skole studier og sightseeing i Italia. Turneen var i Riccione ved Adriaterhavet, og været var stålende hele tiden vi...