WALTER MITTY

Just spending some time on the wintery morning (with a fresh cold!) fantasizing about a future trip to Italy, à la Walter Mitty. So far in our European travels, we've just touched on a tiny portion of Italy near Monaco, but definitely plan an Italian vacation in the near future.

Rosa Rosae

Trevisio, Italy

I bought this magazine at our local librairie in Mougins, France during our visit in November-December and have been captivated by the images of this small hotel inside an ancient mill in Trevisio, Italy. At 120 Euros per night (including petit déjeuner ), I think it's a bargain. You can enjoy a five-course meal in the restaurant on weekends for about 45 Euros. And, there's a vineyard that provides the restaurant's cabernets.

I love the hanging glass ornaments. Something close to what I'd planned with the heart-shaped ornaments I lost at the airport in Nice.

From what I'm able to gather (with my near non-existent French) from the article, the mill which dates from 1564 was renovated by Elisabetta and (her husband) Silvio Stefani--an architect. There are five guest accomodations and a restaurant. Cote Sud doesn't seem to offer an on-line version of this article, but here're more details.

DISCOVERING PROVENCE, part 7 - A SIDE TRIP

The Italian Riviera

SN2 haven’t really seen Nice--arriving at the aeroport and driving just to our hotel last Saturday before continuing to Mougins. Since today’s weather is gorgeous, we go early to Nice to visit the Fleur aux Marche, wander the streets, walk the Promenade, and window shop.

At the market we buy salted pistachios, pecans, and also fresh mushrooms for tonight’s chicken soup. We drink coffee, take pictures, and soak up as much as we can… The sun is bright and warm in the Place Massena and we find delicious baguette sandwiches at an outdoor café. We walk through Galleries Lafayette and then down rue du Massena for a few blocks before finding yummy gelato.

Soon we are on the A8 east and heading to the Italian border. The mountains and valleys are terraced with beautiful homes leaning out and over the deep blue Mediterranean. The views are spectacular—villages clustered on the hillsides and overlooking the sea. We drive with great anticipation through San Remo, park in Bordighera, and then discover the Italians have different rules than the French. We have barely adjusted to the 12:00 – 2:30pm lunch break, and now we find the Italian shops and businesses are open from 8:00am – 1:00pm and then not again until 4:00 – 8:00pm. We window shop and find an Illy café where we settle in for our café crème and ciocolatta chald, and also discover the very best cannoli in the world live right down the block [a few moved on with us!].

No matter where we have roamed through Provence we have never been disappointed with any café. They are conscientiously clean and the wait people are kind and tolerate our attempts at French—single words and simple phrases—punctuated with hand gestures and plenty of “pardons” and "merci’s.”

Driving to the Italian Riviera is a joy and the villages on the Mediterranean are quaint and lovely. We always check out the real estate offices wherever we wander, and here we find the prices to be much less than anywhere we have been in Provence.

We wind back up the hillsides and head to Mougins where we buy butter and baguettes to go with our dinner of chicken soup and cheeses. We also have leftover, tiny radishes to eat with salt and buttered baguette slices—and Clementines and chocolates; Beaujolais Nuveau and Champagne. Our last night at Club Mougins and we are living the good life, French style.

Tomorrow we explore Marseille and my first bouillabaisse ever…