I think I just discovered why my office has been so cold. My Ecobee temperature sensor was sitting next to the exhaust vent for my laptop. The sensor thought the office was a full 10°F warmer than it actually was! 🤦‍♂️

@dmoren I’d like to buy a copy of “Tapper’s Day Off” for my brother-in-law as a Christmas gift, but I’m having trouble. I don’t think the story is available as a print edition (too short?), and I don’t think it’s possible to buy the Kindle edition as a gift for someone else’s Amazon account (is […]

Teaching my 12 year-old nephew how to split kindling. Welcome to Uncle Charlie’s work camp! #ThanksGiving

My Dad passed away in February, so this is the first Thanksgiving without him here. He was always the pie maker, but that duty now has passed down to me. The good news is that Dad did a really good job of keeping recipes at hand. The bad news is that some of his […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

“Just use Cloudflare,” they said. “It will fix all your bot/uptime problems,” they said.

Now, as I write this, we are on the train about 15 minutes from Milano Centrale. There we’ll catch a connecting train to Malpensa airport. We’re going to spend the night at the Sheraton hotel in the airport, then catch a morning flight home. Ciao! #Travel

After our Grand Canal cruise, we grabbed lunch, then collected our bags and took a water taxi to the train station. The water taxi was a lot of fun. Ours was a beautiful wooden boat with an open section of roof that allowed us to stand and take in the sights during the ride. #Travel

This morning, our last day in Venice, we got an early start and took that vaporetto ride down the Grand Canal that we missed upon arrival. It’s crazy to think that the entire city is basically built on pilings that were driven into the mud of a swampy river delta. #Travel

We also toured the Doge’s Palace (complete with a walk across the “Bridge of Sighs”), the seat of power for the Venetian empire for a thousand years. #Travel

Exterior views of Basilica San Marco. #Travel

After touring the Basilica from the ground, we visited the Basilica museum which was even better. It’s inside the Basilica, but high above ground level. So in addition to the exhibits, it also gets you up close to the ceiling mosaics and access to the roof where […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

Basilica San Marco is impossibly beautiful. The entire interior is covered in mosaics made of stone chips that measure about a quarter inch square. No wonder it took 800 years to complete! #Travel

Then, of course, there are the gondolas. They’re everywhere! Stand on a bridge for a few minutes, and you’ll see them pass under you, one after another. Yes, they are unapologetically touristy, but they’re also utterly charming. It’s fun to just watch them […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

Venice is incredibly cool. There are the canals of course, but walking the city is an adventure too. The walking paths are narrow with buildings looming over them. Nothing forms a right angle. Paths will go 100 feet and then dump you into a small piazza, or […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

Catching up on the last few days… We arrived by train in Venice the day before yesterday. The first order of business was to hop on a “vaparetto” (or water bus) and get to St. Mark’s Square which is where our hotel was located. We thought it would be a nice way […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

I mean, Pi-thon was *right there*. https://mastodon.social/@hugovk/115333348041057866

Pro tip: If you find yourself in Venice and looking for a lunch spot, look for where the gondoliers are eating. They know where the good food is! #Travel #Food

I might need to switch to the backup credit card. Heather is shopping for purses in Venice. 😅

Apple Maps has come a long way in the U.S., but it’s still garbage in Italy. Bad routes, wrong locations.

This day in panic inducing text messages. #Travel

The plan was to hike the “Trail of the Witches”, a hike that starts at high elevation then descends fairly gently back to Compatsch. I was expecting chilly temps for the hike, but we arrived to find snow on the ground, and a steady wind that made it feel even […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

This morning we took a buss to Seis, and then took a cable car to the Seiser Alm, a huge Alpine meadow surrounded by the Dolomite mountains. Once the cable car delivered us to Compatsch (the village closest to Seiser Alm), we took the Puflatsch gondola up again […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

Yesterday evening we had an excellent dinner at Vōgele (https://www.voegele.it). They serve mostly German and Austrian food (befitting the local taste), with the occasional ravioli and risotto thrown in. An interesting twist is that they seemed to only serve […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

Yesterday was a travel day. We hired a car to drive us from Malcesine to the nearest train station in Rovereto, then took the train to Bolzano. The province that Bolzano is in (Alto Adige) was part of Austria until after World War I, so this is a Germanic people […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

Today we took the ferry across Lake Garda to the village of Limone sul Garda. As its name suggests, Limone is famous for its lemon groves. Apparently, a few hundred years ago, Limone used to trade their lemons for Malcesine’s olives and olive oil. As a result […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

After a disappointing dinner yesterday, it was nice to enjoy an excellent meal this evening at Ristorante Giuly in Brenzone sul Garda (just South of Malcesine). The restaurant’s menu is fish focused, and their wine list is impressive. We enjoyed a Tenuta […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

After our little hike on Monte Baldo, we stopped at a mountaintop restaurant and enjoyed a tagliere (meat and cheese board) for lunch. I took advantage of them catering to the large number of German tourists that visit the area by ordering a liter of beer […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

The views from the top of Monte Baldo are stunning. We walked the ridgeline out-and-back for about a mile round trip taking in the views and watching the paragliders. #Travel

This morning we took a series of cable cars from Malcesine (elevation 230 feet) to the top of Monte Baldo (elevation 5800 feet). The second cable car rotates 360° so that everyone can enjoy the view no matter which way you face. #Travel

Malcesine is beautiful once you get out of the touristy city center. We’re staying in Hotel Val di Sogno. It’s a little bit of a hike from the docks to the hotel 1.5 miles) but we were able to take a lakeside walking path the whole way, and took in the views […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

This morning Heather and I left the group, striking out on our own. We drove to Milan and caught the train to Desenzano on the South shore of Lake Garda. After a quick pizza lunch, we boarded a boat for the two hour ferry ride to Malcesine on the Northeast shore […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

We finished the night with dinner at Osteria Della Aie in Castagnito. Osteria Della Aie was fun because they go out of their way to be a “locals” restaurant. I don’t even think they have a website. Their menu changes often, is delivered orally, and every […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

Next, we took a tour of Langhe with stops in Serralunga and Barolo. The landscapes are amazing. In Barolo, Heather and I each bought a glass of wine at the Borgogno tasting room, and enjoyed our drinks from their rooftop terrace. #Travel #Wine

After they finished processing the grapes, Paolo gave the group a tour of Demarie winery, followed by a four course lunch (prepared by Paolo’s wife Monica), where we got to taste eight Demarie wines: Arneis (crisp white), Sebnia Arneis (orange), Roero Riserva […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

The next day (September 30), the tour group visited Demarie winery, where winemaker Paolo gave us a tour. It’s harvest time, and we arrived at the same time as a load of Nebbiolo grapes from their vineyard. Paolo’s brother Aldo was transferring the grapes from a […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

After visiting Santa Caterina, we cleaned up at our hotel, then joined winemaker Paolo Demarie of Demarie winery (https://demarie.com/en/) for a dinner featuring his wines and some regional food specialties, including black truffle. Paolo is a close friend of […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

The first stop on the tour was Tenuta Santa Caterina winery (https://www.tenuta-santa-caterina.it/en). We toured their grounds & barrel cellar, and then tasted six wines with lunch. They had the usual Piedmont wines, including a Barbeea and a Nebbiolo, but they […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

All of Adam & Natalie’s tour company is called “Joy of Wine Journeys”, so this tour (like all of them was wine focused. #Travel #Wine https://joyofwinejourneys.com

The last two days have been a bit of a whirlwind. Among other things, our friends Adam & Natalie are tour guides. Heather and I joined the first two days of their current tour, so for the last two days we joined Adam, Natalie, and two other couples as they explored Piedmont (specifically Langhe […]

Italian DIY help: I’m traveling in Italy and need to make a repair, so I need to go to an Italian hardware store tomorrow to buy some super glue. I speak no Italian. How would I say “cyanoacrylate” in Italian? Is there a well-known brand of cyanoacrylate glue in Italy that I should ask for […]

After breakfast, we drove around Langhe to take in the countryside before stopping in La Morra, one of the larger villages in the Barolo area. It’s a cute little village. Wine tourism is clearly an important industry for the village—they have more enotecas than […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

Adam and Natalie are hosting a tour group later this week. Heather and I will be joining the first two days of the tour before splitting off to do our own thing, so we’re staying at the tour hotel, Castel di Guarene (https://www.castellodiguarene.com). It’s […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

More photos from Grasso Fratelli. All the wines were good, but the 2015 Grasso Fratelli Barbaresco Riserva excellent. A real stand out.

After a leisurely lunch, we visited Grasso Fratelli, a small family owned winery whose owners Adam & Natalie are friends with. And when I say small, I mean very small. All the winemaking is done by brothers Luigi and Alfredo, while their niece Eliza handles the business end of things. We walked […]

We had planned to taste at Produttori del Barbaresco, but they were a little busy, so we instead climbed Barbaresco Tower, directly across the street. The views of the countryside were outstanding.

We went into the village of Barbaresco to look around and found the same tractor we had seen earlier at Rabajà in the town square, delivering its grapes to Produttori del Barbaresco, the local farmer’s co-op and a very highly regarded producer of Barbaresco […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

I was surprised to learn that Joe’s house is directly across the road from Rabajà (pronounced rah-bah-YA in the Piedmontese dialect), one of the most well-known and prized vineyards in Barbaresco. Harvest is in full swing here, and tractors and field workers […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

Adam and Natalie were staying with a friend of theirs in Barbaresco, and they offered to let us use their shower to freshen up after our travel. Barbaresco is beautiful! In addition to a hot shower, the house also had commanding views of the Barbaresco […] [Original post on mstdn.social]

After an 8 hour layover in Boston, then an overnight flight, Heather an I arrived in Milan. We rented a car, almost misplaced my iPhone 😱, then took the 2 hour drive to Barbaresco where we were meeting our friends Adam and Natalie.

Had lunch at Boston Logan where we saw a prep cook shucking oysters. But the knife had a cord! Maybe an electric shucking knife? I asked my server and he explained that it wasn’t electric, but rather a security cable that tethered the knife to the station. They have periodic security audits, and […]