ahhhhhh, italia.

In case you haven't noticed, it is my FAVORITE PLACE ON EARTH. I don't care whether it is or is not entirely run by the mob, has entirely unreliable public transportation, or any other negative thing you may have heard said about it: the beauty, the history, the art, the wine, the FOOD, and the people make it one of the most amazing places on earth.

A teensy disclaimer here: this post will a bit verbose, 'cause I LOVED BERGAMO, at least, the Alta Città ("high city," to the layperson) portion of it. The upper city is old and historic and charming, and is where we stayed; the lower city is more modern and relative charm-less, but with a few old churches/interesting buildings tucked in. However, if you forget something--say, underwear or deodorant, both of which one or both of us may or may not have forgotten--you're not finding it up on the hill. And also, you take a cable car or a bus to get from one part of the city to the other, both of which are sketchy propositions, as the cable car runs only rarely due to apparently super high maintenance costs, and the bus does NOT run anywhere close to on time. Ahhh, Italian efficiency. (If you go, STAY IN THE UPPER CITY. It's waaaaaaay prettier and is really where you want to be.)

Anyway. I really had no idea this city would be that awesome. The ride there was fiendishly hot (stupid Gotthard tunnel), and the ride home was freezing and raining (stupid weather), and it was still worth the trip. We even decided to spend a second night there: thankfully, our little B&B could fit us in, 'cause it was just that fantastic.

So. The first night we rolled in fairly late--around 9:30--and got into our room, and then actually had many restaurants to choose from for dinner (gasp!). (It was very un-Swiss, and quite refreshing: dinner at 10 PM? Anarchy!) We ate at Ristorante da Franco, primarily because they had a lovely outdoor dining area, and because at even at that time of night, it was still a bit warm, and terrifically humid. Yuck. We started with the local-plate-o-meat, which is always a solid choice in Italy (usually salami, prosciutto, and in this case, bresaola and lardo) and then Mike had lasagna, we split an order of polenta with mushroom sauce (they're very proud of the polenta in Bergamo, but it seems like fancified grits, to me...just sayin'), and I sampled the local pasta: casoncelli, which is a beef ravioli-type-pasta topped with olive oil, fried sage, and--yesssss--bacon. It's just as good as it sounds. Sorbetto and panna cotta for dessert. Maybe not the finest food I've ever had, but certainly solid, and Italian.

Next morning we awoke to yet more humidity and heat, and ate breakfast at our little bed and breakfast (B&B Agnese), which turned out to be the best idea ever. I'll just list the spread: meat plate (mortadella, salami, prosciutto, yessss!), yogurt (flavored and plain), fresh fruit, cereals, nectarines with balsamic vinegar, bread basket, juice, fresh coffee, cappuccinos, fresh mozzarella. Um, yes please. I love European breakfasts, and this one was just special. Plus, the B&B owners were just really nice, and the place itself was just lovely (not the fanciest, but well located and comfy).

View up the hill from our breakfast table.

Back side of our B&B.

Then headed out to see the sights, of which there are many in this little town. The history of the place is pretty amazing: first settled by the Celts in the 6th century B.C.; colonized by the Romans in 197 B.C.; conquered by the Lombards and the Franks and then handed over to the Episcopals (not kidding...!) and then conquered again by the Viscontis, all between 197 B.C. and 1331 A.D. Venice took over in 1428 and left its mark (there are lion statues, friezes, etc., everywhere), during which time the walls, which are the defining feature of the Alta Città, came into being; then Napoleon came in and founded Bergamo Republic 1797), which is then passed to Austria. In 1859 Garibaldi troops through with his freedom fighters, and Bergamo becomes part of the unification of Italy in 1861. After that it they built the lower city, and now it is what it is: super interesting. But I digress. The sights!

The street our B&B was on. Old and narrow. I love it.

Same street: building with a fresco poking out. There were lots of these, all over town.

I love how they make old stuff work with modern life. (Tower and wall? Yes. Soccer court? Yes, also.)

Sant'Alessandro gate in the old walls. Not its best angle, but these things were monumental. (There are four of them, each situated at the road to a major city, and they are something to see.) 

The Citadel, the remaining part of the Visconti fortifications. It now houses the natural sciences and archaeological museum. And its piazza is now a parking lot. You know people are used to everything being old and cool when they park their cars in a place like this. 

More old, narrow streets. This doesn't quite capture how narrow it all really was...

The window of Il Fornaio, a take-away focaccia pizza place and bakery. Pretty food!

The facade of town hall (1604) in Piazza Vecchia.

Piazza del Duomo, with the Duomo on the left (white facade), Santa Maria Maggiore and the Colleoni Chapel directly in front. The Baptistery is on the right.

The Colleoni Chapel (1470-1472). A prominent city leader destroyed an apse of the adjoining church (Santa Maria Maggiore) in order to build his own tomb, which reminds me of a wedding cake in marble. Insane detail.

No really, look at this. You can't take photos inside, but suffice it to say that it's pretty nuts on the decoration there, too.

Baptistry (1340). 

Overwhelmingly Baroque interior of Santa Maria Maggiore. Construction began in 1137, and wasn't really completed until the 16th century (financial troubles, changing styles, the usual.). Originally the interior was covered with Romanesque frescoes, but later redone in over-the-top Baroque gilding, statuary, painting, friezes, etc., etc.

One of the recovered frescoes.

Side exterior of Santa Maria Maggiore: you can't even remotely see all of this from the front!

Compared to the crazy Colleoni Chapel, the front of Santa Maria Maggiore is fairly unadorned, but it does have these cool red stone lions. (A little kid was riding one when we came out.)

I love their street signs. (And also, how many names this street has...!)

I think this place is a bit like Bologna: miscellaneous medieval towers everywhere.

I love how this is one building with two distinct styles. I also love how warm this photo looks: I want to go in there, to see what's inside.

Random gigantic, old building that appears, for all intents and purposes, to be just normal apartments. I AM SO JEALOUS. I love where we live, but this building has character!

More narrow, winding streets. And this one actually has no people on it!

The Rocca: fortress on the hill. This part dates to the mid-15th century. This building now houses a museum dedicated mostly to Bergamo's role in the Risorgimento (unification of Italy), and the grounds are a memorial park for Bergamo citizens who died in various wars. It's full of old artillery pieces, a tank, a giant ship anchor, and various plaques and monuments. Very interesting. (And also, this year marks the 150th anniversary of Bergamo's entrance into unified Italy, so there were little Risorgimento exhibits and festivals and things everywhere. Pretty neat stuff.)

View of the Alta Città towers from the Rocca.

View from the Rocca's ramparts over part of the lower city.

Polenta cake! We meant to try it, but didn't get a chance. It sounded delicious: it's not actually polenta, but a yellow cake covered with fondant and sugar crystals and filled with with some variety of cream, topped with little chocolate birdies and jam. NEXT TIME.

The torta table where we ate lunch. We were both absolutely too stuffed to eat any, but LOOK HOW PRETTY. (They also had a little table with giant slabs of chocolate on it, for hot cocoa. Go figure: it was in the 80s that day.)

Al Donizetti, where we had lunch. Looked like it used to be a covered market square like the one in Florence, which is larger. But perfect for lunch outside!

Mike had the casoncelli.

I had the pizzocheri alla Valtellinese, a buckwheat pasta with potatoes, greens, and TONS OF CHEESE. Truly terrible service, but good food and a really great location!

St. Mark's lion on the Sant'Alessandro gate.

View of Alta Città from the opposite side of the Rocca (from the grounds of what remains of San Vigilio castle). 

We did have to spend a couple of hours puttering around the lower city trying to find the aforementioned necessities, so you can't say I'm judging its lack of charm without having first experienced it...but it was nice to get back up the hill! We had dinner that night at Trattoria La Columbina, which was about a two-minute walk from our B&B, since the weather was horrendous, but the dinner turned out to be lovely. We started with baked ricotta topped with pesto and accompanied by the ubiquitous polenta, and then Mike had the casoncelli (again! twice in one day! although this was the best iteration yet), and I tried risotto with bacon and some mystery ingredient we couldn't decipher in with limited-at-best Italian skills; turned out it was bleu cheese, which I don't love, but which was fairly decent in combination with the bacon. (No surprise there.) We split the brasato con polenta (again, with the polenta!) for our second plate, which was beef slices braised in red wine, and it was AMAZING. Dessert was panna cotta with strawberry sauce, into which they had poured little hearts with some type of custard: really cute, and quite tasty. Blanket statement: you can never go wrong with panna cotta, in Italy...at worst, it's still going to be quite edible.

Next morning, breakfast was, again, spectacular: fruit/yogurts/juice/coffees/breads again, but this time with fresh burrata (usually, salted heavy cream wrapped in a little bag of fresh mozzarella--yep, it's as good as it sounds); pear slices drizzled in the local moscato dessert wine (it's red, and tastes more like a light port than moscato) and served with these little fluffy-slightly sweet-crackery things topped with powdered sugar; and bresaola topped with olive oil, lemon juice and salt (what a revelation!). I suspect that breakfasts like that are how people become those obnoxious "morning people". (Probably wouldn't work on me, but it certainly makes getting up a happier experience.) 

And those were our last happy moments in Bergamo: it was insanely humid and a bit warm as we were gearing up to get on the bike, and once we were moving it was tolerable, but it started raining about 20 minutes outside of the city and proceeded to pour on us most of the rest of the way home (so, about 3 hours). On the one hand, the waterfalls coming down the mountains through which we were riding were ridiculously beautiful and were everywhere: it reminded me of Hawaii! But in a super freezing, all-of-my-clothes-are-soaked-through kind of way. And we rode up the eastern side of Lake Lucerne, which was gorgeous and dramatic and quite enjoyable, and roughly where the rain eased up, so that was nice, too. Ride home: atrocious. Rest of trip: AMAZING. Italy has yet to disappoint.  =)

just lovely.

That's what my weekend has been. Homemade Mexican food, picnic by the lake, chocolate Movenpick ice cream complete with cocoa nibs (nibs, people!) and some homemade red currant compote. A little German homework, a little crocheting, and lots of really good U.S. Open tennis. Too bad my dear hubby wasn't around to participate: he's in Nairobi until Wednesday morning. Ah well, all the more leftovers for me...

And now, as promised, the Zürich Street Parade. Thankfully, it occurred August 13, the day we got back from the US: just the thing to keep us awake for the rest of the afternoon! Admittedly, we didn't spend very much time there, 'cause it was brutally hot outside, and the crowd was just overwhelming, but wow. What an experience. Yet another occasion in which the quiet, proper, conservative facade of this city dissolves into large-scale insanity (not unlike a few of the major holidays here...!), and then only to have every trace of the previous evening's revelry cleaned up by the next morning. Swiss efficiency, I tell you. (Seriously. The only thing left was the gigantic stage set up in front of the opera house, which was down by the next evening. Amazing.)

So. The Street Parade isn't a parade in the floats/marching bands/giant character balloons/American sense of the word. The only actual vehicles on parade are these things called LoveMobiles, which are essentially huge flatbed trucks with their own massive sound systems, toting lots of scantily-clad dancers. The rest of the "Parade" consists of the roughly million or so people (no exaggeration!), at least half of whom are in some variety of costume, who pack the streets and dance near no fewer than seven stages of techno music scattered throughout the city at the north end of the lake. Not really being a huge fan of techno music myself, the primary draw for me was just strolling through the crowds--at least, to the extent that movement at all was possible--and marveling at the giant, yet somehow peaceful, mass of humanity gathered to celebrate "20 years of love, freedom, tolerance, and respect," which was their theme this year. (The organizers place a great deal of emphasis on not doing drugs and not drinking to the point of drunkenness, but we did see a fair number of rather tipsy individuals. Apparently, however, it's largely a violence-free event, which is just incredible, considering the scale!) Turns out, the Parade is not so much a parade as a gargantuan costume/techno/drinking/dance fest, complete with food booths (which I will be visiting next year!), hat/boa/wig sellers, a laser show, and the occasional celebrity (this year's was Boy George, how utterly bizarre). Interesting tidbit: technically, it's legally considered a political demonstration, but more people clearly see it as the perfect opportunity to try out their gold body paint, slutty mouse costume, dominatrix gear, grass skirt and coconut bra, etc., etc., etc. My photos cannot possibly do justice to the weirdness and dancing and revelry that was going on around us, but here they are, anyway.

One of many hatteries along the lake. 

Smurfs. Seriously.

Sweet sombreros, dudes.

People as far as the eye can see.

Using the public water fountains as beer coolers. Classssssy.

Brett Michaels fans.

People 'n party boats.

More people. LOTS of people. Everywhere.

I liked this guy's roses and top hat. 

There were a lot more men in drag, but these were the only ones I got a decent shot of. 

More smurfs. Apparently, a popular costume this year.

Hope those weren't his favorite shorts, 'cause they're all gold now.

Green Man! And a red one, too.

Zombies. A little out of focus, but definitely some of the more elaborate makeup we saw.

Just when I think I've seen the full extent of this city's ability to defy my expectations, along comes another holiday or festival, and this one pretty much took the cake. Despite the nearly ankle-deep detritus of beer cans, plastic cups, bottles, food plates, and other party-related trash, and the nearly crushing crowds, I fully intend to go back next year, try out the festival food (yippee!!), and watch the weirdos party down. What a trip.

What I'm reading: oof, somehow I managed to entirely leave out a book...my latest pirate adventure was Empire of Blue Water, by Stephan Talty. This one was primarily the tale of Henry Morgan (the Captain!) and the effects his piracy had on the Spanish presence in the Caribbean. I appreciated this one for its honesty: Mr. Talty still managed to express some admiration for the pirates' democratic tendencies, as well as Morgan's creativity and leadership capabilities, while describing none too delicately their brutal torture tactics and disregard for lives and property. Really an interesting read, but I felt as though Talty attributed a bit too much of the collapse of the Spanish empire in the New World to the actions of Morgan and his buccaneer crews, instead of, oh, say, the actual wars and intrigue at home in Europe. I was fascinated, however, by the fact that Morgan's greatest successes came not on the high seas, but actually in land sieges of wealthy Spanish cities in the Caribbean and Central America. Who knew?? Good stuff. Finished that one last week, and now I'm into Blackbeard: America's Most Notorious Pirate, by Angus Konstam. Interesting so far, but on the Kindle, the font is HUGE. It's weird.

Next up: Bergamo, Italia. I find that I need an Italy fix every few months or so. Ahh, European life. It ain't all bad.

back in the U.S. of A.

For a brief time, at least. Mike and I spent a week in Denver back at the beginning of August, and I can't even begin to tell you how lovely it was to see our dear friends and family. My whole family--yaaaay!--swung through on their way to a wedding in Canada, and we stayed with Mike's mom and had dinner with his brother. We also got to visit two of the three brand-new-ish babies born to close and wonderful friends since we left; spent several roasting hours at the Botanic Gardens (but at least it was a dry heat...!); drove to Boulder several times; and generally kept busy with shopping and eating. Turns out, I didn't fully realize just how much I had been missing Mexican food (New and otherwise) until I had stuffed myself silly with it on this trip, but more on that later. Now, a few pretties from the Gardens, my favorite place in the whole of Denver.

Don't know what this is, but I love the color!

Apparently, it was water lily season.

I heart the succulents/cacti room.

It never ceases to amaze me what they can grow here. Incroyable, as Jean K. Jean might say.

More water lilies. You cannot possibly conceive of how many photos I took of these.

Different kinda lily.

Orchids in the new conservatory.

Some sort of hanging weirdness in the tropical conservatory.

Duckies! These guys are a joint venture with the zoo and have only been there a couple of months. And they're TINY and have blue bills. I love them.

Some sort of neat frond-y thing in the tropical conservatory.

Seriously, I even saw a Bird of Paradise growing there outdoors once. What can't they grow??

Even more seriously, back to the food. We didn't quite hit all of the eateries that I wanted to revisit, but we got the usual suspects: Twister's (twice! mmmmmmmm, enchiladas rancheros! and now opening a new branch in Denver proper!), Casa Vallarta (for pork carnitas and a burrito Colorado!), Señor Ric's (for $11 margarita pitchers, queso dip, and green pork chile con huevos! seriously, stop by on a Tuesday night, at Mississippi & 225 in Aurora--the margaritas are great and the green chile nice and spicy!), Illegal Pete's (for shredded beef/green chile and cheesy chicken burritos), Snooze (for brunchtime goodness with my best friend in all the world!), Sonic (I know, seems out of place on this list, but their green chile bacon cheeseburgers are so fantastic, and who doesn't love tater tots??), and, of course, Taco Bell (a true weakness of both my husband and myself, plus, somehow America managed to export only its more worst large fast food chains to Europe--McDonald's and Burger King, YUCK--so we needed a far tastier lard-and-"meat product" fix, please don't tell me what's actually in it, because I'll just end up being sad but continue to eat it anyway, and then that would just be mean of you). And then for the new-ish experiences: Rioja, for some fairly fancy dinin', and Jack-n-Grill for some super affordable and tasty New Mexican food.

So...Rioja. I'd really been wanting to eat there since before we left, as it came highly recommended by our friends Dane and Sarah, whose recommendation for food I'd take anytime (thanks, guys!). And whom we met there for a lovely fine dining experience. We all started with apps to split: an order of the fresh bacon (in a cardamom/curry/garbanzo bean puree), the Thai scallops (lemongrass panna cotta, compressed pineapple, plantain tuille, coconut kaffir lime purée, Thai red curry vinaigrette--not that I know what all of that means, or particularly like scallops, but these were quite nice!), and the Rioja picnic (wow: fennel salami, red wine bresaola, and Parma ham; pine nut crusted goat cheese; Italian gorgonzola; olives; truffle fennel salad; orange confit; and almonds, with some sort of giant grainy crackers). The entrees: mine was one of the evening's specials with some sort of fish and basil-filled ravioli in a salty broth with sweet cherry tomatoes, scallions (I think...!), and salmon meatballs; tasty, but nothing terribly spectacular. Mike (and Dane--the big winners of the evening, I posit) had the grilled Kurobuta pork chop with Dubliner cheddar tater tots, grilled bacon-wrapped summer beans, applewood smoked bacon vinaigrette, and black truffle crème fraîche. A giant dollop of which they slathered on top of the pork chop, rather dramatically, when the food was served. One comment on the service: Dane was away from the table at the exact moment when our entrees were served, so the waiter offered to have the kitchen keep it warm for him (bonus #1). Upon his return, they presented him not only with his own plate, but with an additional plate of the tater tots, as they felt that his original tots were now "soggy." Whatever you say, guys, but it all boils down to twice the tater tots (bonus #2!). If that's not service, I don't know what is. Anyway. Desserts: I had the lemon tart with a pine nut cornmeal crust, with lemon confit, pine nut brittle ice cream, and lemoncello granita...and I cannot even begin to describe how shockingly tart the granita was, but at the same time, how utterly delicious! (I really need to figure out how to make that at home, and then just keep it in the freezer for emergencies requiring frozen, super lemony treats.) Oh yeah...and the tart et al. was pretty fantastic, too. Mike had the “whopper” torte, with a crispy malted shortbread crust, chocolate flan, caramel mousse, and malted creme anglaise. Also very tasty, but pretty darn rich after such a large (and also rich!) meal. I will be honest, though, while the service was quite polite, and our water glasses were never empty, and we were never at a loss for delicious breads (with lavender! orange! goat cheese and scallions! and other things I can't remember!), it was a bit slow...as in, it took us three hours to eat, and not because it was Italian-style with 6 courses and a nap/walkies in between. Nope. Just slow. HOWEVER. All in all, I can highly recommend Rioja for a really nice dinner on Larimer Square. Mmmmmm, Larimer...

Also managed to squeeze in some all-you-can-eat sushi at Sushi Katsu with Mike's brother Bobby and his wife Anastasiya, and how fun. They're planning to visit Europe over New Year's and we got to talk travel, which, as everyone might have guessed, is one of my favorite topics, second only, perhaps, to food. And on that subject, why, one might ask, would cosmopolitan quasi-foodies such as ourselves seek out sushi in land-locked Denver? It's simple: Switzerland, too, is quite land-locked, but Denver is a large airline hub, which means that fishies can be flown in quite fresh; and while is sushi here exorbitantly expensive, it cost $24 apiece to have all-we-could-eat sushi and appetizers at dinnertime, 10 minutes from our old house, on Havana. All we had to do was eat everything we ordered, which turned out to be no problem whatsoever. Yes, please! I couldn't even attempt to tell you which rolls we ate, being a relatively new convert to the glory of sushi: I just know there was tuna and salmon and chiles and scallions and avocado involved, as well as tempura shrimp and veggies and edamame. Yessss. Surprisingly good, fresh sushi (and other goodies, including those weird, but strangely delicious, sticky little mochi ice cream balls) in a strip mall in Aurora. Who knew?? A great recommendation from both our old next-door-neighbors and Mike's sister-in-law, and one we will surely be visiting again in the future.

And now, to the budget New Mexican food. Which, frankly, presented quite a refreshing change from the overpriced, underwhelming food one finds rather easily here in Zürich! I speak, of course, of the fabulous Jack-n-Grill, located, somewhat sketchily, on Federal, near the football stadium. We met up with some of my friends from back in the day at SWCA, most of whom live very near downtown Denver, and it was just tremendous to see them all: not to sound sappy, but these are smart, fun, independent, motivated women who I am very proud to call my friends. (Sniff.) But back to the food. This was only the second time I'd been there, and while my first experience was certainly just fine, I found it a bit underwhelming, as it promised authentic New Mexican cuisine, and the green chile was nowhere near hot. (Schade.) This time, however, Jack-n-Grill delivered. The margaritas were large and good, the chips and salsa were tasty, the guacamole was good, and the combination plates were huge, cheap, and delicious. All the things I look for in a good meal! Mike, the only male in attendance, and, as always, a terrifically good sport about it, had the no. 1, with a chicken enchilada, a soft chile relleno, a crunchy beef taco, beans 'n rice, and Christmas chile over everything. I, on the other hand, went for the no. 2: one beef and one chicken enchilada, with red and green chile, respectively; a bean tostada; and beans 'n rice. All of which came on two ginormous plates for each of us, and which neither of us could even get close to finishing. On the one hand, I'm proud of our collective self restraint; on the other, so sad to leave such delicious grub behind. If we'd had a few more days, you can bet that I would have taken those leftovers down, but as it was, my family and I had already filled my mother-in-law's refrigerator with no fewer than ten (no exaggeration!) styrofoam boxes...so I bid a fond adieu to my leftovers, and to my downtown friends. A lovely, affordable dinner on a lovely (if noisy and a bit smoky, thanks to stupid chain-smoking crazy guy!) outdoor patio, with some lovely people.

Wow, I did not mean to ramble on quite to this extent about the food. I seriously need to find a job in which they pay me to A) eat, and then B) to talk and/or write about it. Think I might have a serious obsession here. Too bad I have no actual/marketable skills or knowledge pertaining to the subject.

To sum up the Denver trip: we certainly don't miss all the driving, the strip malls, or the wicked (again, at least it's dry...!) heat, but we do miss the wonderful people, the lovely food, and affordable shopping (who knew I'd have to import a decent mouthwash?!). We'll be back to visit soon, but in the mean time, let us know if any of you are coming to visit: we have a list of goods we'll need you to smuggle bring in for us.

Up next: Zürich Street Parade. Way more than just a parade, I can tell you that.