Achieving nothing

Friday morning we woke up and looked at the day's schedule. It was a blank page - my favourite. Just kidding, we don't have a schedule, it's just in my head. But the point is, if we did have a written schedule, then for that day it would have been blank. So we headed to the massive hotel's breakfast room. It was pretty average to be honest. With all this eating I wasn't very hungry anyway so just opted for some yoghurt and prunes and fruit with the intention of being kind to my insides for something different. The coffee from the machine meanwhile was positively woeful. I'm sure the Americans thought it was delicious though. Oooh snap!!

Ryan taking a morning dip with the pool to himself

As there was no wifi in the room (major fail on my Trip Advisor reviews) we then went to reception to try and get some wifi happening in order to see if we had missed out on anything major overnight. Thank God we had not. I did some blogging while Ryan went for a run. And then we hit the pool for some lazing about, some reading and some swimming. The weather was perfect. So lovely just doing nothing.

Beach panorama

After a few hours we decided it was time to head back to the little town of Porto Ottiolu. The town was very quiet again, quite different to the action and buzz of the previous night.We still weren't very hungry, so we stopped in at the bar where we had watched the World Cup the previous evening for a drink, and to make use of their free wifi. I had my normal Aperol spritz which has become my fave in Italy - very tipici della regione. We also ordered a caprese salad but it was not the greatest. I don't think food was a top priority at this place. So we then wandered around the port for a bit, got a gelati, and then back to the hotel and chilled for a bit.

Spritz poolside

Then it was just about time again to head back to the pool, and yes, for another Spritz. And so after some of that and some sitting around the pool, it was soon time again to head back to the port. It's such a vicious cycle this relaxing business. There was no World Cup on that night which was a bit disappointing, so we had  a bit of an earlier dinner - back to the place where we had it the night before as that was quite delicious indeed! They remembered us, and so after they brought out the complimentary little prosecco glass and little fish carpaccio salad, we ordered some fish involtinis (also raw - yum!) filled with ricotta for entree which were awesome.

Delicious fish involtinis

Ryan had his heart set on getting the risotto with mussels and prawns and clams and everything else - it was a minimum of 2 people, so that made the decision easy for me. And we even got to each wear a bib! How delightful!! We must have looked way cool because we noticed that then the tables on either side of us ordered the same thing. It was pretty damn scrumptious! And then we just headed home, just as all the kids were starting to come out and start playing :P

Bibbed up for an Italian version of paella

We were asleep at 10pm, and didn't wake up until 8am, after what had obviously been an exhausting day. So we had a quick crappy breakfast (Ryan managed to get a proper espresso made for him) and then we checked out, and drove 15 minutes to nearby San Teodoro. It was quite a big town and looked quite nice, although it was more of a port so not much beach action to be had. We stopped in at a couple of souvenir shops and Ryan bought 2 T-shirts and a cap because he loved Sardinia so much.  And finally we pushed on back to Olbia, where we had flown into. We had an early flight the next morning to Florence so were booked in a the Jazz Hotel  just near the airport, so after we checked in and the room was not ready, we returned the car at the airport (which was a lot less painful than picking it up), and walked home via a big supermarket to pick up some ciabatta to have with some Tuscan olive oil I had been hauling around. Just before 2pm, the room still wasn't ready, so we waited at the hotel bar (thankfully which had free wifi) with yes, a beer and/or Spritz.

Finally the room was ready at about 3pm - it was worth the wait as it was well equipped with wifis and Sky Sports so we could watch the World Cup. We spent the rest of the afternoon there blogging and photo uploading (by the way all my photos can be found on my Flickr web page) and watched Brazil knock out Chile in a thriller, followed by what turned out to be a delicious hotel in the hotel restaurant. The next morning we packed up and achieved a dream of mine - we walked to the airport. Just like in The Castle.

Best diving I've seen since the last world cup match

The previous day I had booked a dive up the hill from our hotel. I had to be there at 8:30am to get fitted for a wetsuit and gear check to get back down the hill for the dive at 9am. We went out to the dive site in a rubber ducky boat. Kinda like the surf life savers boats but bigger and with a hard base. We drove for about 1 hour to a spot near the beach Heidi and I visited yesterday. I forget what the spot was called exactly but it translated into "little harbour" in English, it was a small natural harbour hidden behind these massive rocks. I wish we had known about it yesterday it would have been a good spot to stop for a picnic without fear of being washed away.

Anyway we suited up and did 2 dives. After the first dive I decided to use the hood built into the wetsuit as it was about 10 degrees at 18m under the surface. There were quite a lot of little fish to see on the dives, I saw a couple of small moray eels, a stonefish, some barracuda a pretty big clam and a few lion fish. The 2nd dive was pretty cool and had to do a lot of manuvouring in limited spaces. we went into a cave and through some tight under passes and into a crevasse which was slightly claustraphobia inducing. Both dives were quite long I think both were over 55 minutes(the Germans on the dive laughed at me at the debrief for not keeping a diving log, "Australians: she'll be right hey". Being the gentleman I am I didn't even mention the war). Normally I have to surface at around 45 because of air but maybe I was more relaxed this time.

After I got back I was starving, luckily Heidi had been to the super mercato and arranged a lunch to have on the balcony with some vino of course. Later on we went up to the rooftop to enjoy some more Sardi vermintino and do some reading with the 180 degree view of Cala Gonone. Dinner we went back to the hotel restaurant with the seating across the road for some more of their tipici Sardi menu. I had some fish ravioli with dried mullet roe sause and Heidi had some shellfish with the rice pasta. I should start photographing more menus so I can remember the actual Italian names for all these slightly different pastas.

The waitress checked that I knew what fish roe was and I was all like "si, pesce uovo".
I don't know what would be offensive about fish eggs.

The next day we had our breakfast and checked out, I was a bit sad to be leaving Cala Gonone as it was an awesome spot. We loaded up the Fiat Panda and headed back north to Porto Ottiolo. We were staying a bit out of town at this resort type place called I Corbezzoli. A bit out of town means a 15 minute walk in this sleepy little village. The place had a pool and its own private beach. When we arrived we were shown where the room was, it looked like a road so I got the car and started driving down this concrete road, but the road kept getting smaller, we suspected that it was not really a road for cars but for the golf buggy that will drive you if you are staying in a more expensive room. Our suspitions were confirmed when we saw the gardener getting angry with us. Anyway we put the car in the carpark and wheeled the luggage in.

Soon after we were getting settled it stormed so we had to ride out the storm in the  room. Luckily Heidi had bought some wine poppers from Cala Gonone super market. Wine poppers are like convenient travel sized goon. After the sun came out we went to the pool bar and cashed in our welcome drink tokens. I asked for a couple of spritzes and the bartender said, "these are not for alchohol". Obviously I looked completely distraught as he made the welcome drink cocktails but said quietly "I put some rum in them for you". What a nice man.

After lazing by the pool we went to see what kind of action the local town had. Unfortunately it was siesta time so not much action was to be had. We went to a cafe and got some pizza and looked out on the little marina. I guess even though there wasn't much action besides some guy riding around on an electic scooter presumably for advertising, it was still a good spot to sit.

Not all of the marina was nice to look at.

Later that night we went for dinner just next door to the cafe and to my delight they had sardines on the menu, finally sardines in Sardinia. I was pretty happy.

Sardini, apparently not so tipici.

During dinner we had noticed that there was some action happening in the sleepy little town square someone had setup some speakers and some DJ decks. Was this sleepy little town going to turn into some sort of mega rave? Unfortunately not, as we were walking home we saw that it was an Italian version of the wiggles singing to an audience of bambini and their parents. Further on we passed another kids show, then when we were nearly at our hotel, we heard some music in the distance probably another raggazi rave. I cannot believe we were going to bed before all these kids at around 10:30pm.

Hooning along the Emerald Coast

We woke up on Monday morning rested and happy, as we were in Italy, on an island, by the beach, and where Monday-itis does not exist. After a quick hotel breakfast, we packed up and left our hotel room (strangely decorated with animal print items), and following sending Ryan back after he returned the keys without collecting our passports, we were back on the road in the little Fiat Panda. Before hitting the autostrada, we turned down a dirt road down to beautiful Cala Sabina. Although it was overcast this morning, the water still looked a glorious emerald colour (oh, the Emerald Coast - I geddit!!) and being relatively early it was not overly busy.

Cala Sabina, Golfo Aranci

We both went for a swim - it was very shallow for at least 30 metres or so out, so I enjoyed doing my crocodile crawling around in the sand, through the aqua water, until we could finally swim around a bit. It was the perfect temperature, and not too many people. The clouds looked a little ominous coming in though, so after an hour or so we set back off on the road.

As we drove south, toward Cala Gonone, the clouds really set in. No blue skies were left, although we only suffered a few spots of rain. We were not concerned though - we just wanted to get to the next place and settle in, and I knew blue skies were on the horizon again. After only a 2 hour drive or so, following Ryan's Google GPS lady (who I will say right now that I do not trust more than I can throw her),we were within 15km of our destination. The signs were saying to go right, but the GPS lady said go left, so Ryan did. It was fine for the most part, some pretty narrow and unsealed roads, but the highlight was when we reached the top of a mountain and it was literally like being on the crest of a rollercoaster dip where we had to wind down an extremely deep and narrow climb, with sheer drops off either side. I would have taken a photo if I had a third hand, but mine were too busy hiding my eyes and holding on to the Panda's Jesus bar.

Lunch picnic on the hotel balcony

Since this blog is continuing, it is obvious that we made it safely to Cala Gonone, despite all odds. And what a lovely little town it was - one of my favourites! We checked in straight away to our hotel, which turned out to be a gem. It had everything that we needed, plus a lovely rooftop "solarium" with 180-degree sea views. There was a supermarket just behind us too, so we went and picked up some of our favourite fresh produce (ciabatta, tomatoes, buffalo mozarella, porchetta and prosciutto) and sat on our balcony to enjoy it with dashes of the amazing Tuscan olive oil I bought at the winery I visited during the conference.

Hotel rooftop

The weather decided to clear in the afternoon too, so the views only got better from the rooftop. Australia was due to play Spain at 6pm that night, and although we were already out of the World Cup (as was Spain), we were desperate to watch the game. Spain is one of our adopted teams, as they won the Euro Cup when we were there 2 years ago, and Ryan has their souvenir jersey, so we were really interested in seeing how the match played out. Since Italy wasn't playing, no one in town seemed to be promoting any match, but then we came across "Roadhouse Blues Pub" where we saw a big TV with nothing on. We walked in, they were all Italian, and we somehow asked in broken English/Italian - "World Cup? Australia?". They flicked through the paper to see who was playing - obviously knew Italy was not - and then when we pointed out it was Australia vs Spain they seemed to happy to play the match, probably to see if Spain could possibly lose again.... Anyway, we sat down with the best seats in the house!

View from hotel rooftop

So we watched the match, which for the first half was fine, but the second half not so much. Another Australian couple (from Melbourne, living in London) wandered in during that match (the only other Aussies we spoke to or heard from our entire time in Sardinia!) so we had a chat with them. While the score was disappointing, our mussel/clam and octopus pasta dishes at the "Roadhouse Blues Pub" were actually very good! The only surprising thing was why our Aussie friends were asking us why all the restaurants around the place seem to serve seafood....?!

Boating around Cala Gonone

The next morning we brushed off the Socceroo loss with a quick hotel breakfast and then headed down to the sea to rent our own speed boat! We both wanted to hoon along the coastline at our own leisure. Ryan was surprised that I suggested it, and that I was so keen. Sometimes I get a bit scared of boats, but hey this was the Mediterranean.....! I wanted to get out and about on that calm blue sea!

Cala Gonone coastline

So we set off! The lady had told us that the day prior had been very poor conditions (with the overcast skies and what-not), but that today was a lot better, although there were still some "long" waves. She said long, which actually sounded quite nice to me, but in hindsight I think the translation is actually "big". So all we needed to do was show a passport, pay some money, and then nod to the instructions of how to operate the boat, and we were off! Just us, a boat and the Sardinian Coast!

Stopping ashore

Lucky I popped a sea-sickness pill beforehand - it was pretty choppy!! But it was amazing just cruising along the coastline being able to do whatever we wanted to do.... so Ryan being the salty seadog that he is, just cruised the boat around.... and we eventually reached a place which look ideal to pull up. We pulled right in and managed to get close enough so that myself and what we needed could be hurled onto shore! I jumped off, with our picnic bag and towels etc. while Ryan then took the boat back out. Little did we know this gorgeous little beach was made of pebbles and had such a steep incline that it was near impossible to climb by yourself. So once Ryan took the boat back out, I threw our stuff back up onto the top the beach, then with the help of a kind lady (German I think?) she helped me to hurl myself up too. Not the most elegant of beach entrances I must admit. Then Ryan had to go anchor the boat near the buoys, then swim back to me! It was quite the production for some beach relaxation...

Ryan dropping anchor before swimming ashore

But what a glorious beach it was - not for it's comfort, because it was made of pebbles, but because of it's remoteness and beauty.... We were so remote in fact that the German lady next to us and her male companion shed their togs, but they were 20 metres away from us and they are European so hey no worries. It was funny though when about an hour later, when we couldn't have been more relaxed, that suddenly a big touristico boat appeared right in front of us, and somehow dropped off about 60 people into this remote area. I did take note that the German guy was quick to put his togs back on. So half an hour after that, we all left in our speed boats to leave the hoards of tourists to do their own thing....

Riding the waves of the Mediterranean while anchored for lunch

So Ryan swam back to the boat, I gathered our belongings and waited on the pebbles in a spot where I thought was at least possible to throw them and myself back into the boat. He puled in, and quickly I threw our stuff in and hauled myself in as well, before we quickly reversed and headed back out to sea.A bit more smooth-sailing that time....  We wanted to find somewhere semi-private to stop for a bit to eat... The waves were not exactly calm, so we pulled up near another beach area.

Time to sail us home to safety!

So we pulled up, in a seemingly calm area, where we anchored again and and enjoyed some bread, porchetta etc. It was stunning surroundings, although there was the occassional large and unexpected wave. Just before we were about to leave, we were sitting around, and then we saw another large wave come - and it grew, and grew, and it was just about to break on us! We were so lucky to be anchored where we were - if we had been a metre closer to shore, we would have been under water, like the poor boat just behind us! Phewweeee! So after that we quickly packed up, pulled up the anchor, and I took charge of the wheel and drove us home!

Raw fish - my favourite

Home to my favourite meal of raw fish in fact!! The hotel restaurant across the road was actually excellent with a great view, so we went there 2 of the nights for some delicious food. We also watched Italy play their final match against Uruguay - complete with me wearing an newly purchased Italian jersey - but the result was again disappointing. The next morning I went for a long walk along the coast while Ryan went for a dive.... check out more photos can be found here: Cala Gonone pics

Morning walk from Cala Gonone

Dove sono le sarde?

We woke up and left the hotel to walk to the Milano Cadorna Station to get the Malpenza Express out to the Airport. After a bit of consfusion we realised you had to bus it to Terminal 2 from the stop at Terminal 1. Anyway we arrived in the Easyjet checkin to a massive line, lucky we had decided to get the earlier train. Anyway after all of that I was finally able to get an espresso and panini before boarding the short flight to Sardegna. The flight scenery was pretty amazing, we were flying above the clouds but we could see snow capped mountains above the clouds and also we flew directly over Corsica.

Once in Sardegna we found the rental car place for Thrifty rental cars. The queue was about 50 deep and not moving. They had bundled about 5 different rental car brands into the one service desk. Meanwhile all the other rental car places had no lines. Heidi held the line while I went to check prices in the other places as we were keen to get the holidays started but the other rental companies I checked with were charging about twice what we were quoted. Anyway about 90 minutes later we finaly got our mighty steed, a Fiat Panda.

While en route to our first destination we saw a lady chatting to this girl on a vespa in the middle of an offramp. I first thought "typical Italians having a chat in the middle of the road", but on closer inspection we found they had broken down. Anyway the girl spoke English and told us that the older lady needed to make it to the big boat that was off in the distance. We agreed we'd take her back to the Porto at Olbia. We guessed that she had been having lunch with some friends and needed to get back to the ship or she would litterally miss the boat. We followed signs back to the Porto and she wanted to give us a 5 euro tip but we were like it is nessun problema.

With our good deed for the day done we drove through the Sardinian country side, which reminded me a bit of Mallorca and soon arrived at our destination Hotel Tabby in Golfo Aranci. Heidi told me she first thought it was "Goflo Arancini" as in the rice balls and then I couldn't get that pronunciation out of my mind whenever I saw a sign. It also made me hungry for breaded rice balls. It was a pity they weren't tipici of this regione.

Hotel view was alright

After checking in we went to pretty much the only place that we could see that was open on the beach and tried to get a late lunch. The only thing they were serving was frozen pizza or caprese salad. It was not a hard choice. After a swim and a laze on the the beach we went for a walk around town. It was a pretty sleepy village and there wasn't much going on. There was this weird fun park where it was Christmas every day of the year. I am not sure what they do with it for the rest of the time but I completely agree with them that it is dumb putting up and taking down xmas decorations every year. These guys have just decided to leave them up.

Couldn't capture it all but it was a pretty big space to be used for just once a year.

We had dinner in the same place we had the late lunch. I had some tipici vongole with linguine and Heidi had the same clams but with a local rice shaped pasta. I was disappointed to find there was no Sardines in the tipici di Sardi section of the menu.

The next day we went to the beach for a swim after breakfast. I wanted some good tipici Sardi food so we asked reception where to go and the girl there said to go to this place at the next town north called Locanda Rudalza in Porto Rotondo. It was not really in town but we noticed in Sardigna there were a lot of places a bit out of the way doing "Agriturismo" which is where they grow the stuff or it's sourced from the immediate area. Anyway we sat down and they showed us the menu which was just actually a list of what you're having with a fixed price of 35 Euros. We hadn't really been hungry since the ridiculous amount of food from our exhorbidant Milano lunch but we persevered anyway.

Out come some starters, there was this amazing dish Mazza Frissa, I cannot imagine how much cream they used to make semolina flour taste so awesome but it must have been alot. Also the zuchini and pork meatballs were fantastic. Next came ravioli with potato inside which we saw a bit in Sardigna, gnocchi with tomato and pork sauce and some weird thing they called "dry soup" it was kind of like a cheese cassorolle. Next came the dish we had been waiting for all day the Porchetto(decribed as small pig cooked for several hours) it was awesome. Afterwards when we thought we were going to explode they brought out a panacotta with Sardinian honey and a bottle of this Sardinian liqueur called Mirto. I had to be pretty restrained as we drove, but the bottle was about 350mL and they leave it for you. Also we got through a half litre of their wine and they just brought out another half litre. The local Sardinian red wine is called "cannonau" but it is the same as grenache. After rolling out of there we were so full we just had a picnic on the beach with wine for dinner.

A couple of days into Sardinia and we have not even seen Sardines on the menu. I am pretty sure this is why the Italians call Sardinia Sardegna, it is because they know there's no sardines here. Luckily the place is amazingly beautiful otherwise it would be a complete disappointment.

Parting with Euros in Milano

So after our last breakfast at Casa Nini in Como, accompanied by Daniele's anecdotes and mild complaining about various issues, I asked Ryan "How fast can you have your bags packed for Milan?". In no time at all we hit the road in our little Twingo, and less than a couple of hours later we reached Malpensa Airport to return the car. We were meant to return the car full, but the last petrol station we saw was self service and wouldn't take our cards. It was 3/4 full though, and when we returned it, they didn't care - as the Italians say "It's no problem".

Duomo by day

We then got the Malpensa Express train straight into the city of Milan, which was surprisingly quick and easy considering the distance, and then hopped a quick cab ride from the station to the doorstep (quite literally) of our hotel. We dumped our bags and hit the streets straight away, stopping first for a quick panini and birra for lunch nearby. Then we set off for the famous Duomo, which is quite grandiose I must say. A few chunks of it was under construction as well, which seems to often happen with these large old buildings in Europe. The piazza around the Duomo was swarming with tourists and dodgy guys trying to rip off said tourists, so we shared a hazelnut and pistachio gelati and people-watched for a bit. After a circuit of the area, we discovered a place called Signorvino around the back of the piazza. So according to my near-fluent Italian, Signorvino means Mr Wine, which is coincidentally a term of endearment I use for Ryan. So Ryan/Mr Wine looked very much at home at Signorvino indeed.

Mr Wine enjoying a drink at Signorvino

We meandered around the streets of Milan, which is quite a metropolitan city peppered with some amazing buildings, but to be honest it is the towns of Italy which I adore, not the cities (Rome excluded, and Florence - if you are indeed considered a city). My point being that Milan was a bit like Sydney but without the harbour and 1000 times more history. We eventually reached Vertical wine bar which we had picked out for dinner, courtesy of Tripadvisor. What a little find! A small wine bar run by one lovely young guy who apologised for his lack of fluent English - we responded with our normal "Hey your English is better than our Italian" - yawn, I hereby VOW to do a language course before I return to Europe. At Vertical, for 8 Euros you get a glass of wine and 2 courses of accompanying appetisers which this guys puts together himself. It was delicious and such good value, plus we tried some new and interesting wines that were tipico della regione. We then meandered back home, past the Duomo at night, and back to the hotel to catch the match where Uruguay beat England. That result didnt bother me at the time. In hindsight I would have been backing England.

Duomo by night

The next morning we woke to lovely blue Milano skies and headed out for breakfast around the corner at a place which Ryan had spied on his run that morning (!). His first run of the holiday I should add..... So we ordered our normal espresso/macchiato combination and some "toast with butter and jam". The coffee was good but the toast was like those pre-packaged hard mini French toast things but in maxi form. Wat?! That is not toast. And I think it was like 5 euros each. Hands down the worst meal of all time. We didn't worry too much though, as we knew we had a good lunch lined up ahead of us. Now I'll just let you all know that Ryan makes a pretty mean risotto Milanese and osso bucco, so Ryan thought it suitable to google where the best of these dishes were in Milan so that he could perfect his craft. He found one which was apparently the best, and even Michelin starred, so decided on a whim to book it. After our disappointing breakfast, we wandered around the nearby streets, through some amazingly historical areas with cathedrals like Basilica di Sant'Ambrogio which was built a lazy 1600 years ago, and on to the area near the Duomo where we would be having lunch.

Wandering around Milano's cathedrals

Ryan soon brought to my attention that in fact this restaurant was 2 Michelin starred.... I hesitated and asked what kind of price tag we were looking at but he assured me it would be around 100 Euros total (*note - I just reconfirmed this, and he said he had no idea, he just wanted to go). No problem I guess - we were on holidays, I had actually just finally finished doing the work that I needed to get done (while on holidays!) so I thought it was well earned. We were slightly early (very unfashionable, especially in Milano) so we went to Peck, just around the corner, which is like David Jones Food Hall but on steroids. There were jars of truffles, caviar, whatever your hearts desire available for purchase. And not cheap - over 200 Euros for each jar of the white truffles they had a bountiful supply of! The visit to Peck at least set the scene for our lunch - at Cracco, named after the chef.

Cracco - the dark low key entrance behind the Fiat

Thank God I was decently dressed, as I had not prepared to be thrown into what turned out to be one of the best (and definitely most expensive) meals of our lives. This is what you call, surprise 5 star dining! So we opened the door, were greeted by a man pretty much wearing a tux who escorted us to the elevator, and I suddenly knew this was pretty high end.

Welcome appetiser from the chef #1

We were actually the first ones in the restaurant, so set ourselves down. It was hilarious - they even gave my crappy little handbag its own stool. There were 2 waiters who were very eager to please us, and I realised the price of the meal would be fairly high. When they brought out the menu (which looked amazing), there were no prices listed, and I realised we must have entered into a world where money does not matter.

Slow cooked pork cheeks with scampi

I was just going along with it all, because hey I do like a good fine dining experience, and there was not much I could do at that point. Even when the waiters brought out the welcome appetizer #3 I didn't freak out too much. Although I was actually full by now, I knew I probably could or should not cancel our order :P

Raw meat! My favourite.

So we had an amazing 7 or so courses. It really was top notch. I thought it was amazing that there were no prices on the menu, and when I mentioned to Ryan that we really had no idea how much it would cost, he was confused. It took about 5 minutes or so before that we realised that my menu had no prices, and Ryan's did. Sometimes I love sexism. Lunch is on you Ryan! Although I do find things so hilarious like when I asked for the bathroom and I was taken to the elevator for the 1/2 a level journey up, while the waiter then races up the stairs to greet me when I the doors open 7 seconds later.

Risotto with scallops

The whole meal was amazing - top notch modern Italian. Normally we would plan such an extravagance several months in advance, but this certainly was a gem of a surprise! After such an amazing lunch, we then wandered the streets again for at least an hour or so to work off at least one course, swung by Signorvino again, and then moved on to a bar to watch Italy play the World Cup which was lots of excitement but a sad result :(

Pan-fried veal Milanese style