TRENTINO

Thursday, 29 May

We visited the area of Trentino in the mountains. Beautiful here! The mountainsides are covered with grapevines. Everything has to be pruned and harvested by hand, as there is no room for machinery on the terraces. 

The de Tarczal winery specializes in classic local varietals. We were lead on a tour by Elena (another countess in blue jeans!), daughter of the owner. Her ancestor was an admiral in the Austro-Hungarian army, who married a countess who owned the vineyard. One of their wines, Husar, is named after him. 

Elena

Elena's Family Tree

Husar wine

Gnocchi

After wine-tasting and lunch, we visited the town of Malchesine, on the shore of Lake Garda. This is a picturesque popular resort town, of which there are many along the edge of the lake. 

Lake Garda as seen from castle

In the late afternoon, we had a dessert cooking class, making strawberry tiramisu, chocolate salami, and sbrisolana, an almond crumb cake. We received our own aprons, with our names embroidered on them! Bobby made the crumb cake, and I made the tiramisu filling. Delicioso!

ECU group

Making the sbrisolona

Strawberry tiramisu

TORTELLINI!

On our plate at lunch in Mariana's dining room

Il gatto (Yes, he eats tortellini, too!)

Tuesday, 27 May

Just a short update this morning. We are in San Martino de Battaglia, at the south end of Lake Garda, west of Verona. This is beautiful Italian countryside, and we are staying at Bogno San Donio, a lodging attached to Selva Capuzza winery. There is also a restaurant on the property. We have a full-time guide staying here with us. Stefania eats with us and travels with us. It's a bit like visiting your friend who lives in Italy and takes you to all of the beautiful places nearby, then wines and dines you each evening. Each day is kept busy, and I will jump around a bit in relating our travels.

Yesterday we went to the tiny town of Valeggio, a beautiful place. We spent time at a tortellini factory and learned to make tortellini! The 13-year-old son of the owners, Simone, helped us to shape the tortellini. There is a certificate to prove my skills as a tortellini maker!

We later ate the tortellini, actually three different kinds, plus a pumpkin ravioli, in the family dining room, with the two cats and a dog nearby!

A visit to Parco Sigurta Giardino, a private park nearby, was a highlight. It is a beautiful place  on top of a hill, overlooking the Mincio River (which is a beautiful blue-green sea glass color). Our guide was Emmanuelle (a countess in jeans!) who is married to the inheritor of the property. The park is used for weddings, etc., and is an educational nature venue for schoolchildren. They have deer, cows, sheep, donkeys, millions of flowers, a maze, etc.

We ended the day by winetasting and making polenta for our dinner in a small restaurant. 

Professional tortellini makers

Owner Mariana, son Simone, TJ and Carol making tortellini

Mariana  coaching TJ to cut tortellini

The results!

VENEZIA

Thursday, 22 May

Train from Florence to Venice. Pretty countryside, and lots of tunnels. Several stops included Padua and Bologna. Arrived in Venice around 12:30 p.m. Pretty watery here.

Our hotel is only a short walk away from the train station, and there are lots of shops and restaurants around us. We walked around the narrow streets and by the Grand Canal and other canals. Had a great pizza for a late lunch and yummy tiramisu! 

There are eight food groups in Italy: bread, olive oil, aceto balsamico (balsamic vinegar) pizza, pasta, gelato, tiramisu and wine. We are eating very balanced meals!

Our hotel is a little vintage; well, everything in Venice is a little or a lot vintage. Murano glass is everywhere here - we have a chandelier over the bed. The hotel is not as ritzy as the one in Rome, kind of a faded elegance like Venice herself. There is a wonderful coffee/cappucino/latte, etc. machine in the breakfast room, and we are indulging. Guess that is the 9th food group.

 At this hotel you return your key to the front desk when you leave. It is attached to a heavy brass tassel, so you are not likely to forget and leave it in your pocket. I learned to say our room number in Italian: 247 is due cento quaranta sette.

Today we did the San Marco Square and Basilica tour with a guide - a charming Italian who spoke English. Sort of. We understood about 1/4 of what he said. We visited the Doge’s Palace also. The Doge was the ruler of Venice, elected for life by the aristocracy.  The palace is filled with an amazing number of Tintorettos, Titians, etc. The floors are intricate mosaics and terrazzo. No photos inside the palace, but we could take them in the courtyard.

The patron saint of Venice is St. Mark, and his emblem, the winged lion, is seen everywhere. St. Mark’s remains were stolen from Alexandria, Egypt in 828 and brought to Venice. Saint Mark’s Basilica was built in the 11th century as a chapel for the doge, and became a cathedral in 1807. The interior is filled with mosaics made of glass tiles that compose art that looks like painted frescoes. The walls and floors contain over 60 varieties of marble. No photos here, either. Although most people ignored this rule, we didn’t. We only took photos outside.

SAINT MARK SYMBOL

SAINT MARK BELL

SAINT MARK

SAINT MARK

DOGE PALACE EXTERIOR HALL CEILING

DOGE PALACE CLOCK

DOGE PALACE COURTYARD

DOGE PALACE ENTRY: MERCURY & NEPTUNE

SAINT MARK EXTERIOR MOSAIC

Our tour ended at a Murano Glass Museum, where we viewed a glass-blowing demonstration. The artist was amazingly fast, and in a couple of minutes created a vase and a horse. Of course we were encouraged to buy later - vases, statues, wine sets, chandeliers, etc. for upwards of two to three thousand euros. We passed.

Walked around San Marco area for a while and meandered back to the hotel. Lots of photo ops here in Venice, which is composed of 118 islands connected by bridges.

SEAGULL DIVING FOR THE OUTDOOR FISH MARKET

VENICE VERSION OF A BENSON BUBBLER

Friday, 23 May and Saturday, 24 May

Santa Lucia is buried here! At a church near the hotel - San Geremia. Here body is under the altar. The train station here is named Santa Lucia. Funny I haven't seen any Saint Lucy memorabilia in the shops.

ALTAR ABOVE ST LUCY CRYPT

DINING IN FRONT OF ST LUCY CHURCH

More walking around; no tours, but did walk through the Jewish Ghetto where the Jews were once forced to live, and many still do. It was very quiet because it was the Sabbath for them. Kosher restaurants, shops selling Jewish wares, etc. were closed.

Made sure we had our reservations for train,  hotel, etc. for our last few days here in a week or so when we return to Venice to fly home.

Tomorrow it is on to Verona. Not sure how the wifi is there.

Venice makes you crazy, I think. Last night in a thunderstorm we sat out by the Grand Canal, at a metal table with metal chairs and metal umbrella. Somehow, we are still here to blog about it.

OUR HOTEL

TIRAMISU

Second Day in Firenze

Wednesday, 21 May

On our own today, so went to the Uffizi Gallery, built in the 16th century by Cosimo 1 de’ Medici as magistrate offices (Uffizi means offices). But he also wanted a place to house his amassed art collection, so art has been stored here for centuries. No photos allowed here either. However, we saw many works by da Vinci, Michelangelo (The Holy Family), Botticelli (Birth of Venus), Raffaela, etc. We spent about 2.5 hours in here. Well worth the hassle it took to get us there.

We had been told by our host to take the C3 bus into town. It (supposedly) runs every 10 minutes. 50 minutes later.... we decided to walk into town along the Arno river. So much for getting to the museum when it opened. Also had been told that your wait would be 2 or 3 hours or more to get in if you did not book way in advance or with the tour group. Tour group cost - 39 euros each. At 9:10 we went to the ticket office that takes reservations for 10.5 euros. The time on our ticket said 9:30, so we were let in at that time. Total wait time was 20 mins.

Lunch was next: pizza and wine at a sandwich shop. Then on to Ponte Vecchio, a group of shops that have been built on the old bridge. They are all jewelry shops - lots of sparkle here!

Our gelato stop was in a chocolate shop. We resisted all of the temptations except the gelato!

No problem catching the bus back to the hotel. After a nap, had dinner in the hotel restaurant. Excellent! I had the Spaghetti with Spicy Lobster for 16 euros. I was expecting small bits of lobster in the sauce, but here is what I got!

Off to Venice on the train tomorrow. Here are some random photos. A domani!

Arno Rier

Enlarge and you will see the man in the doorway. He is moving motorcycles closer together so he can get his in!

Ponte Vecchio.

Firenze

Monday, 19 May

After breakfast, took the high-speed train to Florence, or Firenze, as they call it here. The trip was about one and a half hours, at speeds of up to 250k (155 mph). About what the drivers do on l’autostrada. We were offered a complimentary snack - coffee, wine, juice, cookies and crackers.

Upon arrival at noon in Florence, we had to wait for another group to arrive from Venice, then went to the hotel for check-in and spiel on more tours we could purchase; we finally got into our room about 3:30 p.m. Naptime! Then we wandered into Florence for dinner. We are doing a lot of walking because the hotel is 20-30 minutes from the city center.

Tuesday, 20 May

The group went to see Michelangelo’s David at the Galleria dell-Accademia. Completed by Michelangelo in 1504 when he was 26 years old, it stood outside the Palazzo Vecchio; it is 17 feet tall and magnificent! In 1873, the statue was removed to the Gallery, and an exact replica replaced it in the plaza. No photos are allowed in the Academy, so the photo here is of the replica standing on the original site. The other notable pieces we saw in the Academy by Michelangelo were entitled the Prisoners. They were all unfinished, so you can see the progress of Michelangelo’s work. They truly looked like prisoners, trying to escape from the marble.

The other statue above by Cellini is of Perseus with the head of Medusa. It is in the same square as David.

The lion is one of the symbols of Florence. Even some of the dogs look like lions!

Florence is full of art, outside and inside. The Santa Maria de Novella basilica is one of the major basilicas in Italy. It is colorful marble on the outside, and contains works by Donatello, Lippi, and Botticelli, among others.

We had lunch at a cafeteria-style restaurant, where you go through the line and pick your pasta, pizza, vegetables, dessert etc. We had rigatoni with mushroom sauce and fresh vegetables. It was delicious!

Their display of gelati here is amazing - the containers are huge to entice you to eat more - like we need enticement!

We had dinner at a small restaurant near the hotel, Trattoria Baldini. Some restaurants do not open until seven, and we got there about 6:50 p.m. The owner told us that they were not open, but we were welcome to come in and drink wine! An honor bottle of chianti was on the table, and the 10 minutes went by quickly!

The hotel has a rooftop deck, with not much on it, but great views. They are definitely underusing this space! Buona notte until tomorrow!