After our long day yesterday, we slept in this morning, packed up the car, and checked out of the Airbnb in Verona around 10:30 AM.
I forget exactly when it was, but at some point Sabrina figured out that the airline strike was postponed until September, so we no longer had to worry about that.
Our ultimate goal for today was to get back to Milan, where we'd spend our last night at a hotel by the airport. If we had headed straight for the airport, it would've been about a 2 hour drive.
Instead, we planned to take the very scenic route, stopping in a few cities along the way.
First stop was the ancient city of Mantua, about 45 minutes southwest-ish from Verona. The approach to the city is via a causeway over one of the lakes that surround it on three sides.
We parked on the outskirts of the city, just outside the wall, and walked into the center of town. It was over 100° F again, so we stayed in the shade where possible.
It was almost noon as we strolled around the piazzas, which were hosting a never-ending, bustling, outdoor market.
We found a cafe and stopped for a snack, and to cool off briefly. They had mini prosciutto and mascarpone sandwiches, which I might have to try making at home sometime.
In one of the piazzas, there was an archaeological exhibit showing 2000+ year-old mosaic tile floors that had been dug up under the square.
After spending about an hour in Mantua, we were ready to resume our journey. On the way back to the car, we walked through the park (Piazza Virgiliana?) at the northern edge of the city, up against the city wall.
Our next stop, about an hour and a half (on back roads) south of Mantua, was the Modena region. Along the route, we drove through small towns and expansive farmland, negotiating endless traffic circles and going whichever way Google Maps suggested on the "avoid tolls" setting.
Aside from its ancient origins and medieval old town center (like so many of the cities in the area), Modena is also know for Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Maseratis, and balsamic vinegar.
The first few balsamic... uh, destinations? we stopped at were mysteriously closed, despite all available information suggesting they should be open, but luckily there are plenty of options in the area.
We ended up at Aceto Balsamico del Duca, where we learned quite a bit about balsamic vinegar (and the distinction between DOP and IGP) and had a tasting session of seven different bottles.
[Wikipedia has separate entries for Balsamic vinegar, Traditional Balsamic Vinegar, and Balsamic vinegar of Modena if you're looking for some light reading.]
The two on the right were aged 12 and 25 years, respectively, if I recall correctly.
Fun fact: this stop was the farthest south we went in Italy, which was about the same latitude as Minneapolis, MN.
Continuing along our very scenic route, our next stop, after another hour or so on the road, was in Parma. By the time we took the back roads there, navigated the maze of one-way streets, and found a parking spot, it was after 5 PM.
Many (most?) restaurants in the cities where we had been were closed between lunch and dinner, meaning 4 PM to 7 PM (ish). It just so happened that this was our only good opportunity to eat a real meal today, schedule-wise, so we were determined to eat dinner in Parma.
Sabrina, through extensive research, managed to find a place that was "open continuously" from noon until midnight, very close to the university. There wasn't any parking (for cars, anyway) within a mile of the restaurant, so we were able to see some of the old town of Parma during our walk.
Trattoria Corrieri was almost empty, since it wasn't even 6 PM. The only other customers were fellow US tourists, as far as I could tell.
We obviously had to have prosciutto.
One of the other regional specialties is Tortelli d'erbetta, which we were happy to order. Sabrina's contained spinach and cheese, and mine had potato and cheese inside.
On the walk back to the car, we encountered a traffic jam caused by construction vehicles. Luckily, we were parked ahead of it, and were able to get out quickly. It was just past 6:30 PM when we left.
After Parma, our scenic touring was over. It was over 2 hours from there to the Milan airport, and the "avoid tolls" route would have almost doubled that.
We arrived at the Holiday Inn Express by MXP airport just before 9 PM, checked in, and then drove over to the airport to drop off the rental car. After a few laps around the airport, we finally managed to find the Hertz car return area.
I was hoping that we could get a ride back to the hotel from Hertz, but they just told us to call the hotel. We didn't have a way to do that, and also the Holiday Inn Express charges for their airport shuttle (that only comes twice per hour), so we investigated other options.
The sketchy "hey, you need a taxi?" drivers at the airport wanted €30 for a 1.5 mile ride, and the real taxis told us we had to go to some other terminal to order a taxi, so we decided to walk back to the hotel. We hadn't actually walked much today (maybe 4 or 5 miles?), and the sun had just set so it was finally cooling off. If not for the mosquitos, it would have been a lovely evening stroll ;-)
Our flight tomorrow departs at 10:30 AM, and we should be back in the US by 1 or 2 PM.
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