Walkabout: Vienna: The Buck Stopped Here

While other portions of Europe send messages of quaint images ("Look, a field of sunflowers!") or attempted romance ("Look, a gondola full of way too many tourists! Don't lean all at once.") or extreme liberation ("Look, another nude beach! Who would have thought? Perhaps there should be guidelines for this sort of thing. If you remember taking your TV's vacuum tubes to the store to be tested, maybe it's time to put on some trunks."), Vienna sends a very clear message when you tour it. It's two words: Money and Power.

Each palace, residence, castle and church that you see perched on massive parade grounds designed to move troops quickly from one side of Vienna to the other, just in case, let's you know where the power and money in Europe ended up throughout much of history. Where was the Roman Empire run from? Vienna. Where did the treasure end up after World War II? Vienna. Where does the banking industry continue to be a safe haven for funds from less stable European economies? It's Vienna. Even now, the Viennese are proud to let you know that their economy is the strongest in Europe..."much stronger than Germany." (Not that's any kind of a rivalry.) 

There is so much power and wealth concentrated in Vienna that it has the ability to even bend history a bit. A tour guide even confessed to us, "Two of Vienna's great feats was to convince Europe that Beethoven was from Austria and Hitler was not."

Where walks along some of Southern Europe's smaller towns have garnered "Oh, isn't that cute? Let's get a picture of that." reactions from us, most of the things we've seen in Vienna get more of a "Oh my God, how can we possibly fit all of that in one picture type of a reaction. It's big. It's pristine. The graffiti we saw all over Southern Europe is not here in Vienna. Who would dare? There must be huge penalties for that sort of thing here.

The Asian Invasion?

One of the things we've noticed now that we've crossed what I've nicknamed "The Beer Equator" (that being the line that separates really good beer in Northern Europe from just okay kind of watery beer in Southern Europe) is that Asian restaurants are now quite commonplace. Whether it's "Happy Noodles" stands set up next to the rail or Japanese and Chinese restaurants mere steps from a gothic church, the Viennese have clearly embraced Asian food.

Mr. Flintstone, Your Pig's Leg is Ready

While we did succumb to Indian and Asian food served at the Vienna Film Festival's outdoor food pavilions this afternoon, we did go with a traditional Viennese/German dinner last night at Griechenbeisl on a very charming patio. We dove right in with creamed cabbage, potatoes, salad, wiener schnitzel, and spanferkel. You probably already know that Wiener schnitzel is pounded veal served breaded, but you may not know that spanferkel is a pig's leg served with the crispy skin on it. Both were fantastic and even the kids enjoyed dinner, though I have to say we've already learned that dessert in Vienna always wins over dinner. Even for someone like me, who would rather have a plate of oysters on the halfshell than save room for dessert, it has to be admitted here that dessert here is amazing, even more so than France. After dropping the kids back at the hotel, we went to a nearby biergarten to drink local beer (actually, wine in my wife's case) and listen to opera that was being shown on a huge screen on the side of the city hall...pretty much a normal Sunday night for us at home in the suburbs.   

I have to say, if you want to "go big" in Europe (big monuments, big palaces, big churches, big shopping, big cinema screens on buildings, big food, etc.), Vienna is a good place to start. Just keep in mind that if you remain overwhelmed by what you see in Vienna for four hours or longer, you should probably call your doctor.        

Walkabout: Lucca: Goodbye for Now

Who would of thought we could get so attached to a place in just a week? It's hard to believe, but this is our last day in Lucca. Tomorrow, we move on to Austria, our next stop.

When we first arrived at our department, I have to admit I was wondering if I was going to be out of my mind with boredom after a day or two. We had been experiencing planes, trains and automobiles across Europe with only brief stops so the prospect of staying a week in a place that seemed nearly deserted when we arrived was a little daunting. But, we found the Lucca lifestyle agreed with us. Sleep in, go to the corner pastry shop where the locals catch up and have a coffee and a pastry filled with tomato, have a late lunch of something fresh and amazing, bike, hike, take a few photos and then have a late dinner. After dinner, it's down to Piazza Napoleon to hear The Killers and Mark Knofler, who are here performing for the Summer Festival. When Saturday arrived, so did a town-wide antique market and we saw stores open for business that we didn't even know existed here earlier in the week. Lucca comes alive for Saturdays.

Virtually every meal has been an occasion, because Tuscan cooking is more about the ingredients than complicated preparations. A lunch of pasta with Porcini mushrooms, which are everywhere here right now, turned out to be about 50 percent pasta and 50 percent fresh porcini mushrooms with a little bit of herbs and butter to combine everything. For the 10 Euros it cost, I couldn't even afford half the mushrooms it took to make the dish back home...and that would be with those dried out mushrooms that have been hanging on store racks since the Clinton Administration. Lunch of bruschetta was a simple affair of toasted bread covered with fresh, blood red tomatoes with some fresh garlic, basil and olive oil. Pappa al Pommodoro soup turned out to be crushed tomatoes with crusty bread and garlic...wonderful! The kids have done their due diligence on the pizza and gelato here and they give it all thumbs up. The local wines have been just as great...and incredibly inexpensive. It's going to be hard to go back to paying $30+ for a bottle of wine in a restaurant that's not amazing. Around here, 10-15 Euros easily puts you in the amazing category of the wine list.

Well, before we lose the Lucca Lifestyle and its relaxed pace and plunge back into planes, trains and automobiles again, I wanted to give you one last glimpse of Lucca. These pictures were all taken just a few blocks from our apartment. Lucca, goodbye for now.   

Walkabout: Florence: Whose Europe is this Anyhow?

Who lives in Southern Europe and who shops and eats in Southern Europe?

The answer may surprise you. So far, we've made two stops in Portugal, two stops in Spain and yesterday was our third stop in Italy, Florence. We've wandered around, talked to locals who are far better at English than we are at attempting even simple dialog in their languages ("Me beer good, please!"), and taken some tours, some with small groups and some not so much. 

What we've seen is a reoccurring theme. We pass the same stores in each city, whether it's H&M, Foot Locker, Cartier, Bulgari or Chanel. The locals and the tour guides point them out with pride that they have such high-end shops adorning their city. They also point out the five-star eateries and bars to stop and sip prosecco, sangria, eat sardines or whatever the local choice is for an afternoon refreshment or snack.  But then, when they are honest, they admit something that's kind of disturbing. "We don't shop there." "We don't eat there." "We don't drink there." 

Southern Europe is in a massive economic crisis. While I've seen that on CNN back home, it really doesn't hit you until you are here and a local tells you that she used to shop on the street that she's showing you, but can no longer afford to go there. She used to have coffee at that coffee bar, but can no longer afford the 5 Euro it takes to sit down. If she goes in now, then she can get a quick coffee up at the counter for 1 Euro, but only if she keeps standing and doesn't take a seat.

So who are taking those seats? Well, it's mainly Germans, English and a smattering of Australians and Americans. Even the Asian tour groups that used to be so prevalent in Europe in the '90s are hard to find, because much of Asia, Japanese tourists in particular, are dealing with their own economic problems. Sit in a Southern European coffee bar or restaurant and you are more likely to hear German than any other language these days. After all, the German economy is the rock in Europe that other nations are turning to for help. 

Southern Europe, at least during tourist season, is not really for Southern Europeans. 

But, what about Florence? Can we get away from the economic blah, blah, blah and actually talk about where you went?

Fair enough! Yesterday we took a day trip to Florence and it was almost Renaissance Overload. Everywhere you turn you go, "Wait, didn't I see a picture of that in high school humanities?" In just a few square blocks, you are immersed in the heart of the Renaissance. 

If you are traveling with teenagers, this is the spot to go. This is what they are studying in middle school and high school. My daughter, a high school junior, was thrilled to be rereading parts of Dante's Inferno in Dante's house. She was literally taking pictures of the drawings inside the house with her phone. Who would have thought someone could be downright giddy about standing where Dante once stood? She was and it was awesome to see.

My son, an eighth grader, has been studying Michelangelo, Da Vinci and the Renaissance. And there he was, pointing out the statue of David. Walking around the piazza filled with original statues, he knew more about them than I could conjure up from memories of high school and college courses.

One of the funniest things we saw was a piazza with a sculpture of the mayor of Florence placed next to a sculpture of Neptune, God of the Sea. The egomaniacal mayor had his face carved as the face of Neptune so visitors could see that the mayor looked amazingly like a god and could in fact be Neptune. Apparently, Florentines still find this to be offensive and refuse to call the statute that of Neptune. They can't imagine a city mayor being that much of an egomaniac. 

Well, coming form the city that has had both Willie Brown and Gavin Newsom as mayors, it's not really that much of a stretch for me to imagine a mayor with such a large ego. That's pretty much par for the course in San Francisco.     

Walkabout: Lucca: First Glance

Lucca is a lifestyle, not necessarily a destination. 

Reading the guidebook on the train to Tuscany, I couldn't help notice that only about 10 pages were dedicated to Lucca. The book bluntly stated that there are no real "sites' to see for tourists in Lucca. You don't come to see the cathedral or the bridge or tower or the (fill in the blank) that you travel to other European destinations to see. You just come to be part of it. 

The pace here is slower and more rewarding. You find little places that are beautiful without feeling like they've been staged for tourists. It's just a snapshot of the Tuscan lifestyle captured behind 4 kilometers of wall. Lucca is one of the last Italian cities still surrounded by a wall. Where other cities took theirs down to provide better access to cars, buses and the tourists they bring. Lucca left its in tact in an effort to preserve a simpler, quieter lifestyle without the need for many traffic lights. It worked. What's left is a wonderful village to wander around that's very proud of being home to Puccini.

The food here is wonderful as well. From the melons you pick up from the farmers' market set up on the piazzo in the morning to wonderful pizza and brochetta. Totelli is a Lucca tradition and can't be missed. It's stuffed pasta, but not really ravioli, that's covered with a meat ragu. The penne arribiatta is also a real treat. Lucca is also well known for its meat and pork and I look forward to trying those as well. Still, pasta was a must first stop for me after spending nearly two weeks eating seafood and tapas. 

Europe so far has been sort of a Goldilocks experience for me. Some cities were a little too big. Some cuisine was a little lacking in flavor. Some places felt a little too economically depressed with people begging for help seemingly every time we stopped for a breath. We've seen some fantastic things on this trip so far, but it really wasn't until we reached Lucca that I felt like we had found the spot that's "just right" for our family. We don't feel like we are passing through to snap a few pictures. We feel as though we are actually living here and that's not something we've felt since we left home.

If you are traveling with teenagers, as we are, then Lucca has the added benefit of being safe, friendly and enclosed by a wall. It's a place where you can set them free on bikes with some Euros and let them do whatever they'd like and then meet back to have dinner together. After being in some of Southern Europe's larger cities, it's nice to be able to relax a little bit as a parent and let them have the freedom they need. After all, when you were a teenager, could you have imagined traveling with your parents nonstop for a month? Me neither. 

So much has already been written about the sights, smells and tastes of Tuscany that I just wouldn't do it justice. Let's just say that, ya, it pretty much looks like it was pictured in that "meet cute rom/com" you saw filmed in Tuscany and that, ya, the tomatoes really are that much better than you get at home. If you can get yourself to slowdown a bit and enjoy it, you might find that "Tuscan Time" agrees with you.