Antiques and Pottery

The day following our wine country trip, we headed south to explore some towns there. One of the recommended destinations was a pottery shop in Nove.  This route, as had our earlier route through Este to Vicenza, kept us off the motorway and onto 2 lane country roads.  We really enjoyed driving through the country and through the small towns.  This part of Italy is also very agricultural and in August the crops looked mature and ready soon for harvest

Enroute to the pottery shop we came across an antique store that Linda had to explore.  So an unplanned stop there yielded some interesting photos to send to our friends in Vicenza.  

Marostica

Leaving Valdobbiadene we then turned our sights toward Marostica, a town famous for its recreation of a human chess board.  After WWI the local chess club began playing chess n the main square and then decided to conduct a match using living chess pieces.  After WWII a comedy writer authored a play where two noblemen play a chess match to win the hand of the local nobleman's eldest daughter, the loser having to marry the younger daughter. The match play was recreated with living human chess pieces so the town's people could follow the moves. While only a play, it's become the legend that is sometimes told as the real history.

Every two years the town recreates the living human chess match with great celebration.  The twin square is a hug chess board, as you can see below.  The high castle can also be seen in the background. The square is surrounded by nice restaurants, and we enjoyed a wonderful meal while sitting outside for a nice evening.

Valdobbiadene - wine country

One of our best day trips was our drive to the wine country of Valdobbiadene, where they specialize in prosecco.  Valdobbiadene is much like Napa Valley in California, as it an entire region dedicated to growing grapes and making wine.  The region is up slightly into hilly country and the view becomes more and more beautiful as you approach.  Everywhere you look are beautiful fields of well-manicured grapes with both old and new winery's all around.  It would require several days just to complete an overview exploration of the area.

One of the recommendations we received was a small winery in the hills outside of town where they have an old building containing bread, cheese, meat, and a refrigerator with bottles of their prosecco. They invite visitors to take some of whatever they want for a picnic and leave the suggested fee in the cash register. It's all on the honor system.  They view there was said to be spectacular so taking some time for a picnic would allow time to enjoy the view.  It was everything as advertised and the views were fantastic!

After an enjoyable lunch and some lingering to enjoy the view, we walked to the next winery adjacent to this one for a tasting.  The second winery had also been recommended to us so it was convenient that they were so close.  There we tried three of their prosecco wines, all of which were very good.  Based on a recommendation from our Italian neighbors at home we were very interested in trying a cartize, which a more rare type of proseccoo made only in a few places. It so good we had to purchase some to take with us, despite our space and weight limits.

After the tasting we drove around the area a bit more, taking pictures and enjoying the views. At one look-out we read a sign that gave some history of Valdobbiadene.  It said the last battles of WWI were fought there, probably to much devestation of the area.  No signs of that now.  Reluctantly we finally had to move on to our other planned destination for the day, and we left. But this is another lace we have on our list of places to visit again.

For all of the photos see the photo album for this post.

Vicenza

After the morning in Este we continued on to Vicenza where we met Andrew and Sylvia and their family who are currently stationed in Vicenza.  They gave us a personal tour of the city, which was a real treat for us. 

First on the list was the Teatro Olympico (Olympic Theatre), built from 1580-1585. The Palladian design is a reconstruction of a Roman theatre. It was also the first indoor theatre ever built and remains in use today as one of three surviving indoor theaters of that era. 

The sets there today are the original sets built for the inaugural event in 1585 and were kept in place because of their unique qualities of perspective and depth.  It's difficult to capture the effect in photos but it is very real in person. 

When we entered the stage door was open and we saw an interesting view of the seats from the perspective on stage. The theatre is as beautiful for the performers as it is for the patrons. 

After touring the theatre we walked through a church the on to the main piazza where we climbed to the roof of the museum for a birds eye view.  The museum had beautiful colonnades that demanded to be photographed. There was also a spectacular view of the church tower. 

Finally we drove to a beautiful lookout with a spectacular view of Vicenza and had a great group photo taken with the Mabie family. As it was a hot day we were then ready to cool off and drove back to Andrew and Silvia's house for dinner. It was a fun day!

There are a lot of great photos from this day in the photo album of Vicenza. 

Este, a lovely small town

We had a half day available before meeting with friends in Vicenza at noon, so we drove south from our hotel a short distance and a bit west to the town of Este.  Our friends had said there was some good pottery there, so that was the initial interest.  We never found any pottery, but the town itself was very delightful with a large, open central piazza, and some nice shops and cafes around the piazza.  We also enjoyed the wonderful architecture of the surrounding buildings and the adjoining side streets.

While walking around we also discovered a lovely formal garden inside the walls of the Castello Carrarese, the historic castle that once ruled over the area.  Overall, this was an enjoyable visit it to an interesting small town.  

Lake Iseo and Marone

The drive from the the winery to Filippo and Simonetta's house brought us to and along Lake Iseo for several miles. The lake is large at just over 25 square miles and our destinartion, Marone was about halfway up the shoreline.

The drive was beautiful both approaching the lake from the south as well as along the Eastern shore. In the middle of the lake is a huge island that stands tall like a small mountain. With the larger mountains that surround the lake it is a spectacular scene. 

The photo album listed with this post contains many more nice photos of the lake. Check it out if you enjoy lake scenery. 

BBQ with Fillipo

After the wonderful winery tour with Paolo and Margaret, we drove on north to Marone on the shore of Lake Iseo. Paolo's close friend Filippo's and his wife Simonetta live just a short walk from the lake.  Filippo and his wife spent a month in the U.S. visiting Paolo and Maggie next door and we became friends as well. Filippo is a retired butcher who loves to BBQ and was preparing a BBQ dinner for our visit. 

The drive to Marone was beautiful, especially as we arrived at the south end of the lake and the road continued along the shore. Iseo is a huge lake with an island that looks like a mountain top in the middle. It was very picturesque. 

We parked the cars on the main road near the lake and walked up to Filippo's as the street is very narrow. As we approached his house we could smell the  grill and the meat cooking and finally we saw the smoke. Filippo was attending to the cooking with assistance from Michael, Paolo and Maggie's son. 

Filippo lives in a building that was formerly a convent, built in the 1500's. His father was also a butcher who kept the butcher shop on the street level and the living quarters were upstairs. When Filippo's parents passed away, the property was inherited by the children and divided into several separate living quarters.  Before the day was over we received a tour of the entire building and two of the other residences there.  All of the photos are in the album in the photo library.  Below is view of the courtyard.

Barone Pizzini Winery

One of the wonderful opportunities on this trip is that we are meeting three different friends at three different places.  Our first meeting is with our next door neighbors from the U.S. who are expats from Milan working in the States for a few years.  They have been in Italy in August for holiday and our time overlapped by  couple of days.  Paolo loves sparkling wine, especially Italian sparkling wine, and he arranged for us to meet and visit a wonderful winery north of Rovato.  This was on the way to Marone where we were spending the rest of the day.

This winery is located in the Franciacorta area of northern Italy, home to Italy's sparkling wines.  Barone Pizzini was founded in 1870.  This was also the first winery in this area to go organic, which involved cleansing the land of all chemicals, and transforming all of the wine making processes to work in a chemical free way.  Today organic practices are becoming more common in this region.

The winery cultivates 47 hectares of land, which is divided into 25 separate areas, each with its own unique soil composition and weather conditions.  Three varieties of grapes are planted across these 25 areas and the wines are made from blending the grapes from these areas.  It is quite a complex process!

We enjoyed a very informative tour of the winery and a brief tour of one field of grapes, then the best part was the tasting.  A nice tables of aperitifs was set with three sparkling wines for us to enjoy. One interesting part of the experience was the specialLy designed wine glasses.  A sparkling wine will continuously bubble, and these glasses are designed with their feet angle to cause the bubbles to rise in a small column from the center of the glass.  It was really beautiful.  The wines were delicious and unique, and we enjoyed each one.

For all of the photos from the tour, check out the album in the Photo Library. 

The Resort, Our Home for the Week

Our choice for a hotel for this week was driven by what we could trade for using a soon-to-expire Marriott timeshare week.  That put us 30 minutes south of Padova at Galzignano Terme Spa and Resort (http://www.jsh-hotels.com/galzignano/en-GB/).  While it looked good from the Internet, you never know until you see it first hand.  It turns out to be just fine and is actually three or four different hotels scattered around golf courses and includes pools and spa facilities.  There seems to be a lot of space and acreage here. We arrived from the airport in our rental car about 3:30 pm and were quite tired after the drive (that's a story for another post) and the long flight. 

After we settled into the room we took a short 45 minute nap, then decided to check out the pools nearby.  The one at the next hotel, just a short walk away, is much nicer so we returned to our room, put on our swimsuits, and lounged and swan a little in the pool.  It was really nice and relaxing. 

We were so relaxed after the swim and the place was so serene, we decided to order something light from the bar and eat by the pool.  What else to order but caprese and prosciutto with melon!  It was a great way to start our time in Italy.

Charles de Gaulle, a gem

This is our fourth vacation to Europe since 2012, and our third time connecting through Charles de Gaulle in Paris.  In 2012 it was a nightmare, we almost missed our connecting flight, and our luggage was lost for 5 days!  There was a lot of construction back then and nothing worked as designed.  Last year we connected thought CDG again and it was completely different, really fast and smooth.  Wondering if that was a fluke, we hoped this year was like last year, and it was again smooth and fast. CDG is really a fantastic airport, beautifully done, and wonderfully efficient.  It has become our favorite so far in our European trips.

Bon Voyage

We chose Air France again this year because of their Premium Economy class, in between coach and business. We also think they serve better food than most others. How appropriate for the French then that they started the meal service with Champagne! We had our own little "Bon Voyage" party right there in our seats. 

Italy-bound

Here we are again with another travel blog and a fun vacation planned in Europe.  As with the past blogs, this is for our family and friends, and will be a travel diary for us to remember the trip.  Any one else who wants to read it is welcome, and I hope you enjoy our personal travel blog.

This year will be different as the trip is entirely self-planned and self-guided.  No tour company this time.  We start with a week in Italy where we will stay in one place and take day trips by car.  Www will travel over the Swiss Alps on the scenic Bernina Express, spend the night in a Swiss mountain town, then on to Zurich for a couple of nights.  From there it's Paris for the rest of the trip, 3 weeks altogether!  Let's hope we can handle 3 weeks, as this will be a first for us. 

As before we welcome friendly comments from you if something we post catches your interest.  Next stop is Charles de Gaulle in Paris, and then connect to a local flight to Venice. More later.