This begins the start of the Bad News Bears portion of the trip.

After Valpolicalla we boarded a train to Cormons in the Friuli region.  Trains in Europe are a whole other beast.  The 3 of us are not accustomed to public transportation (it isn’t prevalent in the South), so tackling the Italian train system was… interesting.  There were a lot of changes and a couple of times I was just crossing my fingers we were headed in the right direction!

We finally made it to Cormons around 9p – I was STARVING, but we still had to walk to our B&B.  I’m not sure how far it was, but let me tell you it felt like 10 miles because the wheels on my suitcase BROKE!

I carried that $%&^*n 50 pound bag all the way there.  I’ve never been to happy that I lift weights regularly in my life!  It wasn’t funny at the time but later I’ll post a pic of me carrying it up the stairs in a train station.  It is pretty comical – that thing is bigger than I am!

Our B&B, Borgo San Daniele was beautiful, even at night.  Even more beautiful was that our hostess had a full tasting of their wines (which I drank a but too fast following the bag carrying-adventure) and a ton of cheese and cured meats (proscuitto de San Danielle is the most incredible stuff ever).  Followed by desserts and grappa.  I was so tired that I didn’t remember a picture until the dessert.

We woke up the next day and I decided to go for a jog through Cormons.  This would have been a great idea after the wine the night before; however, my knee wasn’t having it.  You seen, I had the brilliant idea to go for a run the day we were flying to Italy.  Wellllll… I tripped and landed directly on my right knee (which is my bad knee, naturally).  It swelled up like a melon on the plane, making me generally miserable by the time we landed.

Anyhow, my “jog” through Cormons turned into a limping walk followed by some ab work in a park I stumbled upon.  This was the last time I’d work out until the last day of the trip.  That’s unheard of for me!

Back the the beautiful…

Next on our “to do” list was to rent Vespas and drive ~30 km north of Cormons to Cividale.  It’s a wine road (though we weren’t about to taste and try to drive scooters!) and we were told that the town of Cividale was a “must see.”

PSA: Driving a Vespa is not as easy as it looks.

We crashed that thing.  Twice.

Who just hands you keys to a scooter without any instruction?!  The uber chill Italians, that’s who.

I laid thing thing down on the way there and Corinne did it on the way back.  Mine scraped the whole side of the Vespa!  And I landed on my hurt knee side.

Corinne’s at-fault bruised up my hip and her stomach.  I wish I’d gotten a pic of the bruise on my hip on days 3 or 4 – it turned black!

We did make it to Cividale, but were pretty shaken by the time we arrived.  Shaken and hungry.

Some German guests we met during the previous night’s tasting suggested we try the Salame all acela and the Frico and at Al Campanile.  Being so close to the Austrian border (and Germany), we decided to trust them!

They didn’t steer us wrong!  The Salame alla acela was amazing served warm with cooked onions and polenta.  The Frico was good, but quite heavy with all the fried potatoes and cheese.  It was very German!

But the best part was… a very fresh arugula salad and a cold bier (much-needed after the harrowing ride on the Vespa).

Refreshed Slightly less frazzled, we spent the next several hours exploring Cividale.  It is pretty tiny, but there we tons of quaint little streets to wander up and down.

Everyone was a little sad when it was time to return the Vespas to Cormons.  Mostly because we were scared to drive them back.  

I was scared to turn in the scraped Vespa because it was paid for on my card.  Valid fear – yesterday I spent 30 mins on the phone with American Express filing a claim for the $413 Euro the rental place charged me for damage.  That’s almost $600 USD.

Moving right along… nerve-calming aperitif at Jazz & Wine and dinner at Ai Due Fratelli.  The dinner spot was a recommendation for our new friend Erika, the bartender at Jazz & Wine.  We have her to thank for one of the top meals of the trip!

Wait.  Where’s the wine?  Did we not order a bottle of white with dinner in the region most famous for it’s Pinot Grigios, Friulanos, and Ribollas?

Silly Rabbit, of course we did!  White wine, noir-style.

We selected a bottle of the Ribolla, which is a light-bodied, floral wine from the region.  It also has hints of lemon, which played well with the fish.  The Friulanos tend to be sweeter and the Pinot Grigios are what you see most often in the States.  Being red wine fans, we chose more acidic and obscure white. 🙂

Post-dinner we headed back Wine & Jazz to hang out with Erika and some other soon-to-be new friends.

Italy Milestone: first bar we closed down during our trip.

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Speaking of wine… I’m almost through the first 1/3 of the cleanse!

Interesting observation/learning: it is EXTREMELY difficult it is to be vegan (and bread-free) while on the road.  It took the Ritz 2 hours to figure out how to make me wild rice and grilled veggies for dinner on the first night of my stay!  They did apologize and offer a free glass of wine… which I turned down (sorry for the cold front – hell hath frozen over).

As nice as they were about making me a special meal… I was starving after it took so long to prepare.  Sadly, there wasn’t nearly enough food on my plate and it was really oily.  Ritz fail.

For breakfast I wandered down the street to a local St. Louis/Clayton coffee chain called Kaldi’s with the hope that they would be able to make a smoothie for me.  Success – they guys there were super nice and made me a delicious berry–banana smoothie WITH the protein powder I brought with me.  

Special Diet Travel Tip: pack your own protein powder (BYOP!) and locate a smoothie place.  They will use your powder!  If you enjoy cinnamon if your smoothies like I do, go ahead and toss some in the baggie with your powder before you leave home.  It worked perfectly!  I’m a little shocked I didn’t get search by TSA with my bag of powder!

It was so good that I returned for lunch to have a delicious vegetable soup with a (modified) Greek salad.  They (once again) went above and beyond to customize my food and were incredibly nice about it.  Thanks for making my day, Kaldi’s!

I was actually nervous to call down for dinner after the previous night’s ordeal, but steeled up and dialed room service again.

The Ritz pulled through for dinner this time – they were ready for me!  Perfectly cooked wild rice with steamed french green beans, asparagus and spinach with cherry tomatoes on the side.  Not too oily or over salted this time!  Ritz win.

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All that flying on Delta will call for some Biscoff Cookie Dough Balls soon ehough. 😉

Do you have any trips for traveling on a special diet?

Have you ever been on Vespa?  Would you try it in a foreign country?