Yesterday morning I woke up and decided to make lemon ricotta pancakes using the second-to-last lemon my family from Calabria had sent home with us. Saturday or Sunday morning pancakes have become a nice little ritual for us. There was still a thick fog hanging over the hills outside our patio doors, that was just beginning to burn off under a warm, bright Tuscan sun.
As I was fiddling around in the kitchen, Daren was on his phone telling me about an art festival that had just started in Venice. I asked him to put Venice into the map to see how far from us it was.
“Two hours and fifty minutes,” he replied.
Two hours and fifty minutes?
We both just kind of looked at each other — a little awed, a little excited. We knew we lived close to a lot of great places, and of course we’d looked at the map before, but I don’t think we’d really internalized how close and accessible to us these places were. Venice, one of the most iconic travel destinations in the world was less than a 3 hour drive! Rome is just 2 and a half hours away, and Florence just a half hour. In fact, we realized that nearly all the major destinations in Italy, places that people come from all over the world to see, were a day trip away. Suddenly it felt like we should get out there and see some new things.
So after sitting down to eat these delicious pancakes (a new favorite) we decided to take an impromptu trip toward the Bologna area, only about an hour and a half away by car.
We finished breakfast and hopped in the car: windows down, music up, dog nose out the window. We both felt exhilarated, like we were breaking free of self-imposed constraints. As we were driving down the hill out of our neighborhood we stopped and Daren took this photo. Even as he was taking it he said “the camera doesn’t do it justice”
One of us said something to the effect of, “We really didn’t do much this week,” and then we mentally walked back through the week. What had we done? Do we still need to “do things” in order to feel satisfied? What’s wrong with a slow week focused on more mundane things? Well, here is what a “mundane” week in Italy looked like for us:
Sunday we spent HOURS by the pool talking about how we want to spend the rest of our lives. We don’t have an exact plan yet, and this consulting business feels like a small stepping stone toward something, though we aren’t fully sure what yet.
Monday I went grocery shopping. Before leaving, I typed “art supplies Figline Italy” into Google to see where I might buy a canvas or two. That turned into a much longer outing and a lot more than just a canvas.
The rest of the week disappeared into work, dog walks, a lot of art starts and art projects, and me finally finishing the WordPress site that has basically been an online messy closet since its inception in 2015. I’ll paste the link below. While I did this Daren put in some serious hours on the consultancy work.
We also ordered and received a new coffee foamer this week, along with a Bialetti espresso maker I’ve been thinking about for the past seven months. It was more expensive than I normally like to spend, but its beauty kept calling to me. Doppio macchiatos as a midday break are now a new ritual.
We planned a trip to Umbria to visit friends from our neighborhood. We found a new pizzeria to order from for our Friday night pizza ritural that was ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY the yummiest pizza we’ve had here for our tastes so far.
But somehow, despite all of that, it still felt like we hadn’t really “done” anything this week.
So we were both got excited and decided to do something spontaneous. Armed with our new realization that all of Italy was laid out before us and not far away, we were on our way out on the road towards Bologna without a clear plan. Not our usual way of doing things, but it felt new, fun, and a bit daring. We had a good laugh as Daren, much more of a structured planner when it comes to travel, struggled to wrap his mind around being spontaneous. Where will we park? What will we see? Do we need reservations for dinner? This time, let’s just see where we end up and figure it out along the way.
We initially started driving toward Parma, but somewhere around the city of Modena I was really thirsty and wanted to stop, so we shifted plans a bit and ended up there instead.
And we proceeded to have the best day!
First Glances at Modena
We stopped for a little bite. We were going to look up “things to do” but it was so pretty and such a lovely day, having a destination seemed crazy. We decided to wander. No Trip Advisor, no Michelin Guide, no ChatGPT travel recommendations. Just a new, unknown city where, it turns out, balsamic vinegar comes from.
We stopped in this gorgeous church. We had to go in one at a time because we had Koji with us. Italy is SOOOO dog friendly, but I think they’d probably draw the line if we brought him inside.
Next we found ourselves at Piazza Grande. It was the International Red Cross Day and there was a large event celebrating in the piazza. The “Croce Rossa Italiana” employees made a fuss over Koji as we walked around. He was only too happy for the attention. In this square we also found a company store featuring balsamic vinegar that had been in production since 1604. We went in for a vinegar tasting. Who knew that vinegar was such “a thing”. I cannot (cannot) believe how delicious these vinegars were. One of them had been aged for 25 years! We left with a large bag and one too many ideas of how to use it!
Some more shopping and browsing. We stumbled upon an excellent food market. We bought some cheeses and tortellini (what the region of Emilia Romano is known for).
Our unplanned wandering found us strolling down cobblestoned streets and under countless porticos (for which this region is known. As we continued along Daren stopped and pointed out the cutest coffee shop. We stopped in for a quick espresso at the counter. We were feeling very Italian. As we’ve come to learn, Italians stop into to cafes like these throughout the day and order espressos which they down quickly while standing at the counter. While there, we met and chatted (in Italian) with one of the Red Cross staff who was taking a break. Check out the year of this coffee shop on the little espresso cup! We love how old and full of history everything is.
The day concluded with a bit more meandering and a stop at the Pavarotti statue. Pavarotti, among the greatest opera tenors ever, is from Modena. Koji was starting to get tired. I think we all were, so we heading back home where we had a lovely sunset appetizer dinner with the cheese we bought, our favorite bread (from Lidl of all places), the vinegars we purchased and the very last of the olives that we brought back from my family’s olive grove in Calabria.
A final dog walk, some showers and a little TV/couch time closed out the evening and the week. Today marks 10 weeks that we have been here.
Meanwhile – check out the cleaned up wordpress site where this and all the other Italy blogs live, along with a lot more stuff. A brief explanation is below.
Take a look around by clicking the link above that says esterinaanderson.
The site now opens directly to our Italy page, where we’ve organized the writing into our individual perspectives along with our shared travelogue (including posts like this one).
If you explore the other tabs at the top — Reflections, All the Flavor, and the Digital Shop — there’s a lot more tucked in there too.
Here’s a little mock-up below – which isn’t clickable, but shows what you will see when you open the site and what each tab is. Or feel free to wander through the site yourself. It’s finally starting to feel connected, organized, and a little more like home.
Thanks for taking the time to read. I’d love to hear your thoughts!
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