The Music Cities: New Orleans, Memphis and Nashville

DEPARTURE FOR NEW ORLEANS

We leave our car at Parkingo Malpensa and set off on time with an American Airlines flight. Milan - Miami and then Miami - New Orleans. It's the first time we fly with American but we are left a little disappointed. The planes are very spartan: no personal TV in the seat, meals and drinks reduced to the bare minimum. Once we were so thirsty and, not seeing anyone come round with drinks, we had to make up the story that my daughter had to take a medicine in order to get a glass of water (split in 3). Anyway, the AA flights turned out to be fairly punctual. Arriving in New Orleans we have some difficulty locating the Budget desk for the car rental. Or rather: we find it fairly quickly, in an outdoor area separate from the terminal, but the counter turns out to be closed and we don't understand who we should turn to.

After wandering uselessly from one floor of the terminal to another, we discover that car rentals are managed by Avis (no sign to explain this). There you go: Budget too will be a car rental company to eliminate from our future trips. Fortunately, the car we are assigned, a Chevrolet Impala, will work perfectly for the whole trip and won't give the slightest problem. For the first night, arriving in New Orleans when it is by now evening (and the middle of the night by Italian time) we have chosen a hotel near the airport: SLEEP INN NEW ORLEANS AIRPORT - KENNER

This was a very wise idea. Hotels in downtown New Orleans cost an arm and a leg. So at least we saved a bit, considering that, at that hour, we couldn't do anything but go to sleep.

NEW ORLEANS

In the morning we discover that breakfast is included in the price and it is a lovely buffet with even a machine to make your own Waffels, which we always appreciate a lot. Right after, we set off for downtown New Orleans, towards our hotel where we will stay for 2 days. The hotel is called HOTEL ASTOR CROWNE PLAZA NEW ORLEANS FRENCH QUARTER. It is a good 4-star hotel, magnificently located, with an entrance actually on the famous Bourbon Street. This location, however, comes at a hefty price; it is very expensive for the services offered: - no free Wi-fi in the rooms (but only in the common areas); - no breakfast - small, dirty and cold pool, located on a terrace of the hotel (we didn't use it as it was unusable). Moreover, when we booked the Hotels with booking.com, we didn't take into account that the prices shown are without taxes (the equivalent of our VAT).

So the booking prices must all be increased by a good 20%. Furthermore, the euro/dollar exchange rate is highly unfavourable for us, compared with the time of booking. In short: we greatly exceeded the spending forecasts for all the hotels of the entire trip. Obviously, since it's early morning, our room isn't ready. They do however allow us to leave our luggage in their custody and to park the car in their car park with Valet. Very convenient. We take one of the taxis that always stand in front of the hotel and go to the electric car rental place where we have booked a distinctive car for this our first day:, 180 dollars for the whole day (until 20:00). With the little car we can comfortably visit all the streets of the French Quarter. The morning, moreover, is the best time to visit it in peace. Then, from midday, it will fill up with people and so everything will be more chaotic.

With the electric car we can travel very slowly and stop at any moment to take photos. For prolonged stops, however, it is necessary to park in normal car parks, with the same rules as normal cars.

We indeed park in Jackson Square, already crowded from the early morning. We visit the St. Louis Cathedral, even though at that moment Mass is being celebrated, since it's a public holiday. Then the obligatory stops of every trip: Voodoo Harley Davidson shop and lunch at the Hard Rock Café, located very close to our hotel. Max tastes Gumbo for the first time, a mix of soup, stew and rice typical of New Orleans. That day it is very hot. It's only April but here the temperatures are rather high. That's why we decided to bring our trip forward to spring rather than August as is our habit. In the afternoon we do our first shopping. We buy the classic New Orleans bead necklaces for everyone. These are the necklaces that during carnival time (Mardì gras) men throw from the city's typical little balconies to pretty girls who show them their "assets".

There is a real competition among the girls to get the most necklaces. Fortunately it isn't Mardì gras, yet the streets come alive with the strangest and most colourful characters possible. Besides the classic musicians posted on every corner of the city, there are the craziest characters of all. As someone tells us: "here they're all mad". On Sunday afternoon, moreover, there is a widespread euphoria. In short: it seems like a real madhouse. But "it works". The beauty of New Orleans is precisely this: experiencing the city like this. New Orleans, however, is essentially the French Quarter. The rest of the city is not very interesting. In the evening, though, everything is raised to the umpteenth power. Bourbon Street becomes pedestrianised and the street is very crowded. Music pours out of all the venues. At the doors of the venues, the "barkers" invite you in, showing you their menus.

We go into the first acceptable place. Nola Restaurant, rather rustic with a decent choice of food. We almost always eat sandwiches with hamburger and chips. Here they call them Po-boy, short for Poor Boys, to recall that once the sandwiches were meant for poor boys. We are poor too and so we order exactly those. The bill, however, is not at all for poor people. We spend about 80 dollars for 3, including the annoying tip (tip) which in the United States is obligatory at a rate of about 10 to 18%. It is so obligatory that it is automatically included in the receipt and we cannot avoid it. We have to tip everyone: waiters, drivers and even the musicians who play in the venues. Evidently, besides the waiters, the venue owners don't pay them either. Their salary is the customers' tip. Maybe Americans have understood everything and we Italians, as usual, nothing.

I forgot: in the afternoon we make a sad attempt to use the hotel pool but it is a failed attempt. None of us has the courage to go in given the state it's in (as already said: small, cold and dirty). We just lie on the loungers on the terrace listening to the music coming from Bourbon Street below, to relax before dinner. My daughter prefers to go, instead, to the hotel's super-equipped gym. Here things go better. There really are lots of weights and machines. After dinner, we wander a bit along the street and then go back to the hotel. We are tired. We will never get used, throughout the trip, to the time zone. We always wake up very early in the morning and, in the evening of course, we get sleepy early. What can we do about it?

NEW ORLEANS

Unfortunately it's raining. The thought immediately assails us: will it be like this for the rest of our trip? Just today that we've booked the excursion on the Natchez paddle steamer on the Mississippi! We have breakfast in a Fast Food place, right next to our hotel. We spend little, since it's a simple Fast Food. Anyway, here they serve the typical American breakfast, with little Pan Cakes, though too similar to those sold by our McDonald's in Italy. The rain increases, increases. We take a taxi with a thieving driver who, when we mention that we have to go to the boarding point of the Natchez steamer, charges us a "per person" price and it's not clear why, since the destination is still Jackson Square. In short, we spend double what we should and arrive in pouring rain, so strong that now we understand what the New Orleans flood with Hurricane Kathryna was like.

We fear a hurricane ourselves and we fear the boat trip will be cancelled. But fortunately that doesn't happen. Anyway, they let us wait for boarding time under a precarious awning and we get thoroughly soaked. Once on board we settle in the dining room where a Jazz group plays live for the whole duration of the crossing; 1 hour and a half. Pleasant is the atmosphere inside the boat, the sight of the beautiful and typical wheel of the boat churning water at full tilt: "Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river" - from Proud Mary by Creedence Clearwater. However the landscape glimpsed in this short stretch of the Mississippi is not exactly attractive. In addition to all this, the gloomy weather takes a heavy toll. In short, we don't much appreciate this experience, which we advise everyone to avoid.

On disembarking, we take shelter in the nearby Shopping Centre, where we buy Voodoo dolls for everyone. We buy as many as 10 but you know.....you always need a voodoo doll, for the classic pin ritual. We buy a couple ourselves too, because, sometimes, my daughter and I really need them. 2 pins for each doll are already supplied. But we need many more. So we will buy a separate little box with the coloured heads. The rain seems to slow down, so we stroll a little in the streets of the French Quarter, near Jackson Square and then we laboriously try to find a taxi to get back to the hotel. Unfortunately, just before going out for dinner, the heavy rain starts again. All that remains is to go to the place closest to our hotel, Subway, and have dinner with one of the famous long sandwiches filled as we like.

MEMPHIS

For breakfast we choose an IHOP located near the

NASHVILLE

We leave Memphis reluctantly; the last city of our itinerary, Nashville, awaits us. First of all, though, a quick stop at the Bumpus Harley Davidson in Memphis. Then we get right back on the road because today too plenty of miles await us to reach Nashville (about 3 hours by car). We make only a quick stop at a charming little sport-fishing lake that we spot along the way. We arrive at the gates of Nashville and immediately notice that it is a chaotic modern city full of skyscrapers. This leaves us a bit stunned and disappoints us somewhat. We were expecting a more welcoming city, similar to Memphis, and instead it is not like that. Our hotel too, the DoubleTree by Hilton Downtown Nashville, is a very modern building in the centre of Nashville, but not too much.

Or rather, it is located in Downtown Nashville but unfortunately a bit far from the nerve centre of Nashville, Broadway Street, where everything is concentrated. To reach this famous Broadway Street, the only area of interest in Nashville, we always have to take taxis, or rely on the hotel shuttle (with its own timings and ways). Going there by car is out of the question. There are no car parks and, if there are, they cost a fortune, like 10 dollars an hour or worse at a flat rate of 25 dollars regardless of the length of the stop. For the evening, we absolutely want a venue with live music where we can have dinner. Unfortunately all these venues on Broadway do not allow entry to those under 21. So, for my daughter, who is only 18, it is a problem.

Will we starve? We find a first venue that lets us in without blocking us at the entrance, the Tin Roof; we have dinner a bit with the usual things but the music is decidedly too loud. We cannot understand each other and even communicating with the waitress is a real problem. After dinner, we visit the gadget shops on Broadway; here they let my daughter in without any problems. What bastards!

NASHVILLE

We look for an IHOP a short distance away to have breakfast, considering that it isn't included in the expensive price of the room. We find one a few minutes away by car. Oh yes, because in Nashville, without a car, you can't go anywhere. Our hotel is close to everything and close to nothing. Getting around is always a problem. What a pain! We really don't like Nashville. Or rather: my daughter and I detest it. Max likes it because it's one place after another and they all play live music starting at noon. In the morning we try to reach the Hard Rock Café by car but we can't find parking. So Max will have to go back and return the car to the hotel and come back on the hotel shuttle. We have a drink at the Hard Rock while waiting for Max and then we walk a bit along Broadway Street which, in the morning, is a little more manageable than during the rest of the day.

Next we visit the Country Music Hall of Fame, also booked from home, a famous museum dedicated to Country music with interactive activities and an exhibit of memorabilia from the great performers of this musical genre. In the afternoon we go back to the hotel for a snack at Starbucks, located right in the lobby of our hotel. We decide to go a bit to the hotel pool but the water is practically freezing. They're crazy here to keep this temperature. Indeed there's no one in the pool. There are some people in the gym but, in the pool, only us. Who knows why? Obviously we don't swim at all and, shortly after, we go back to the room. For dinner, the hotel staff kindly point us to a place that admits people under 21: none other than the B.B. King Blues Club.

Unfortunately the shuttle driver makes us waste a lot of time getting to the place which is a few minutes from the hotel, because the id...iot decides to take us last and drive us around the whole outskirts of Nashville, risking our not finding a spot in the only accessible place in the city. Luckily we make it because we arrive at a relatively decent hour and the place is quite big. In the center towers a truly gigantic stage where over the course of the evening 2 bands will alternate: one Jazz and the other Blues. And I who in Nashville thought I'd only hear Country music....

Well, I'll say it again. I don't like Nashville. That evening, a Friday evening, was a collective delirium. It seemed like a madhouse: hordes of passersby crossing, horse carriages on the right, ridiculous Pedal Taverns with people pedaling and drinking, on the left....whatever. Thank goodness tomorrow we're leaving this place. However the evening at B.B. King's turned out to be truly pleasant. After all it's our last evening. Tomorrow we go home.

BACK HOME

The flight is at 12. So we have all the time for one last good American breakfast at our by now usual IHOP. Then we head to the airport, located 20 minutes from downtown, to return the car. Fast and trouble-free boarding procedures, for the first Nashville - New York flight on a tiny plane, about 50 seats, which scares us a bit. But everything will be fine. We arrive on time at JFK in New York, which intimidated us a bit because of its size, but we find the gate for the flight to Malpensa without any problems. We depart 30 minutes late on the usual spartan American Airlines plane, but then we arrive on time at our destination. We wait for the arrival of the Parkingo valet with our car and, all stiff and aching, after the long flight, we go home: one has a backache, one has a neckache, one has a sore ass.

All in all: a beautiful trip, little traveled by Italians, we only met 2 in New Orleans, in fact even we, to tell the truth, had been to the States another 3 times before coming to this area, but it was a very beautiful experience because these 3 cities are truly the "cities of music." Seeing venues that play live music starting from late morning and then all day long is fantastic and the atmosphere is always very fun and friendly; you know Americans are always very kind and welcoming with tourists, especially when you find yourselves together in a place listening to music. And then after all Memphis is "the birthplace of rock 'n roll!"

DANI, MAX AND CLARISSA For more information: