Friday, October 15, 2004

Day 15: Florence - Mantua

We pack up this morning and have our last apartment breakfast. Laura comes to check us out although all she really does is review the accounting and refund Euro 18.00 out of our Euro 250.00 security deposit……the rest goes for the final cleaning and the utilities. Mauro, the concierge, calls a cab and we say goodbye to him and our “palazzo”. It is a bright sunny day for our departure from Florence.

It is a short cab ride to the car rental office in the Borgo Ognissanti and we are the second customers. The paperwork goes quickly but we have to wait for about 30 minutes for our car to arrive; apparently the Alfa 156 that was designated for us can’t be “sold” (the computer says “bloccato”) and the replacement—an upgrade to a Ford Focus CMAX…sort of a big station wagon—is not at this location. During the wait, the office gets very busy and one woman is quite distraught because she needs to return the car (her husband is circling the block looking for a place to put the car) and catch a train, but she can’t get anyone’s attention.

We load the car—plenty of room even for our luggage—and head out of Florence. We get stuck in a traffic jam on the road near the airport which delays us for about 45 minutes but we finally reach the autostrada and head into the mountains between Florence and Bologna. The scenery is very striking as you climb over the Appenines and descend into the flat Po River valley. As we reach the summit, the sun disappears and a light rain begins. This is the last of the sun that we will see today.

The drive to Mantova goes quickly….past Bologna and Modena...and we arrive around 1 pm. The hotel, Albergo San Lorenzo, is located in the heart of the “centro storico” but we follow the very good signs and—even though some of the streets we drive on appear to be pedestrian-only, we easily end up in front of the hotel. After we check in and unload the car, a bellman has to accompany me when I drive the car to the hotel garage, which—while only 50 yards away by foot—is a roundabout driving route through narrow streets.

The hotel room is old fashioned but comfortable…good sized with great light—both natural from the two large windows and artificial from the astonishingly bright light fixtures. Since it now 1:30 pm, we go out to look for someplace to eat lunch. The weather is not too pleasant, overcast and cool. We try a couple of bars that don’t look too inviting but we finally stumble on a nice bar that serves lunches. We have a couple of nice pasta dishes— with artichokes for Diana and with tomatoes and smoked cheese for me…nothing fancy but freshly cooked and tasty—and a green salad.

Back at the hotel, there is a problem…I can’t seem to connect to the internet using the telephone line. While Diana rests, I try to adjust all the settings. When I ask the desk clerk on duty, he indicates that Americans seem to have trouble connecting and directs me to a close by bar which has a computer with internet access. It turns out (after endless attempts) that the hotel telephone lines will not permit computers to dial out so I head for the nearby café to check e-mail.

Later in the afternoon, we take a walk around town. Mantova is a very beautiful town…the centro is filled with attractive old buildings, grand palazzi and piazzas, the shopping streets are inviting and quiet with lots of people riding bicycles. We stroll down one of the streets—I am looking for one of our possible choices for dinner. After we find the restaurant, we continue our walk and soon end up in a deserted section of the city…not the most fascinating place for our walk.

Mantova is surrounded on three sides by lakes (actually the Mincio River, which has been dammed up to create lakes) and there is a nice path in the park on the lakeshore. I am trying to get to this park but every street I try seems to be blocked off, keeping us trapped in the deserted streets. We finally make it back to the center and sit in a big park with a large statue of Virgil, who was born in the Mantova area.

For dinner, we decide to eat close to the hotel at a place where we ate on our previous visit to Mantova, about six years ago. It is on the main square, the Piazza dell’Erbe, in the old Palazzo della Ragione with five or six other restaurants—all with tables spilling out into the square. The piazza is dominated by the dome of the Basilica of Sant’Andrea and also under two large medieval towers, one having a terrific old astronomical clock on its face. It looks like a movie set, but it is full of life—tourists (mostly German, very, very few Americans) and Mantovani—shopping, strolling, eating at all hours.

Dinner at Cento Rampini is very good….we share risotto alla Mantovana (which I remember having on our last visit)—a plate of rice cooked with wine and sausage and topped with a small but tasty veal bone. In this version, the rice is much drier than traditional risotto. For secondi, I have luccio in salsa verde (local pike served cold with a nice green sauce) and Diana has a very tasty piece of roast veal with some okay potatoes. The wine is a 2003 Bardolino (from the neighboring Veneto region) produced by Cavalchina—very easy to drink. My panna cotta with strawberry sauce is one of the best I have ever had and Diana has vanilla gelato with a nice berry sauce. A very successful dinner—the waiter is also very charming—and the bill comes to about Euro 70.00.

We only have to walk a few steps through our movie set piazza to get back to the hotel.

PS: Here are the views out of our hotel windows....both of the buildings in the pictures are relatively modern--late 19th and early 20th century.


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