North Italy holiday:visiting Padova - 7 June

Capella degli Scrovegni with frescos by Giotto in Padova

Tuesday, 7 June

The sun was shining and it promised to be a very warm day. 

After breakfast in the garden of Villa Zane in Treviso, and packing the car (including all the boxes of wine, which we placed in a garage on the premises the other day), we went to Padova. We had reserved tickets onlne for a slot at 16.00 hrs at the Capella degli Scrovegni a while ago. Nowadays you have no choice but to buy way upfront. 

breakfast in the beautiful garden. A good start of the day. 

:-)

After fetching our tickets for the Capella we wanted to see a bit more of Padova and started with a visit to the church of the Eremitani, which belongs to the complex where the Capella is part of too. Beautiful fresco's, phew amazing.

the fresco on the right clearly shows the damage done during world war II

church of the Eremitani

drinks at the posh cafe Pedrocchi (classic temple). Aperol and chips is becoming sort of a standard 'lunch' for P.

yummie ham and cheese

aww, soo many different kinds of fresh mozzarella de buffalo

palazzo del Capitano at the piazza del Signori.

At 4 o'clock sharp we, and the other 23 persons that had a ticket for that time slot, were allowed inside the building in front of the capella.
A video was shown (English and German subtitles) about the Capella in an airconditioned room.
After 15 minutes we were allowed inside the capella where we had 15 minutes to admire the famous Giotto fresco's and make pictures.
It was impressive.

After all this culture we left Padova and went to our home for 2 nites in Vicenza, the Relais Santa Corona. 
A lovely palazzo in a quiet street in the middle of Vicenza. We hope the receptionist gave the local police our license plate number coz the area was restricted to residents only and video monitored. We'll see when we get home.

our room is the one with the balcony :-)

We had made a reservation for a parking place at the hotel. Parking the car was rather complicated. We didn't use the car elevator shown in the picture above after all and parked the car in the small garage next door.

We strolled through the centre and had a drink at the piazza dei Signori. This evening was still warm and dry, tomorrow it will rain. An ideal evening to hang around.

to be continued

North Italy holiday: Treviso 6 June

Monday, 6 June
Today we had to leave Sud Tirol/Alto Adige and move on. However, we will return here for the great wines and the relaxing atmosphere. 
But new interesting areas are waiting for us. First we travel through the scenic Dolomites. 

We definitely aren't the only ones at the Manghen pass (2047m): 90% bikers  

This is our home for this nite: Villa Zane, near Treviso. The owner and his family still live here, he rents only 3 rooms to guests, to keep the intimate atmosphere. 
The garden is simply purrrfect, our room a bit small and rustic (hardly any electricity points to load phones, laptop, etc). Oh well, one cannot have it all.

 

We visit Treviso town: it's very warm today (30 C) so we walk from shade to shade.
One of the highlights of Treviso is the San Nicolo Dominican church, which has many wonderful frescos. Couldn't stop making photos. 

 frescos in the San Nicolo (on the left S. Christopher, the saint of all the travellers and top right San Nicolo (i.e. our Sinterklaas)

soo many awesome frescos had to include in this blog post :-) 

 Treviso is a small city with several rivers and a lot of bridges: little Venice.

selfie 

We had dinner at Trattoria Caprese, which is situated in the university area. My pasta wasn't what I expected it to be. When I told the waiter that I didn't like their pasta con vongole They replaced it with a version that was indeed good, however, I already finished eating by then

Palazzo dei Trecento, next to the Piazza dei Signori. We will have a drink at the cafe in the background.

at bar Beltrame. And I definitely do NOT want to be on a picture!

A large group of people is eating pizza's next door with children playing on the piazza like Peter did when he was their age: running, cycling and moving in all directions with all kind of competitions. Fun to watch.

Our home at nite.

to be continued

North Italy holiday: Alto Adige 3-5 June

vineyards everywhere

Friday, 3 June we arrived around 7 pm in hotel Muhle Mayer in Tarmin/Termeno, Alto Adige. We had a lovely clean and fresh room with spacious bathroom. The lovely elderly lady/owner of the hotel was very helpfull and kind to all her guests, which she treated like her friends. 

On the picture: our balcony, our room, the garden and a wonderful breakfast with lots of fresh fruits

Tarmin

Saturday, 4 June: today definitely is 'wine tasting day'. We picked 2 quality wineries to visit.

'Elena Walch' was our first ' keller' to taste the wines of Sud Tiro /Alto Adige. The Gewurztraminer is here a quality wine and completely different from what we are used to in The Netherlands. And the local Laghrein grape (red) has its own special taste.

The cellars of Elena Walch are a combination of old (barrels) and brand new (inox), with some special light effects in purple: Elena remains an architect after all. 

At Elena's castel Ringberg, her personal vineyard with a scenic view.

Next stop: the Alois Ladeger winery

Alois Lageder bought a large estate at the village of Magreid/Magre a few years ago to create a better tasting experience for his customers: the place is called Paradeis. This is big business. But his wines deserve it: great quality. We didn't visit the cellars, but it's said Bach music is played there to create the right atmosphere for the wines to mature. Lageder is known to love not only music but also contemporary art.

deal 

After all this tasting we definetely needed some food. The lovely garden of Paradeis was being prepared for a marriage ceremony when we were there. Peter did a renewed marriage proposal on his knees and of course I said yesss :-)

Diner at our own hotel: ravioli, (in our opinion) far too well done roastbeef with a very good red wine and a nice strawberry dessert. 


Sunday, 5 June: walking day

the old fashion way to cultivate grapes in this area: pergola growth

After all these wines, something different today: we made a small hike from Termeno to Kurtatsch/Cortaccia through the forest. Lots of birds ... 

and wildflowers.

 

Arriving in Kurtatsch we enjoyed a well deserved  lunch, accompanied by a great glass of white wine at the terrace of Restaurant Schwartz Adler, which was a tip of the owner of our hotel, a great advise!

Walking back to the hotel was a bit more difficult after our sumptuous lunch. After arriving at the hotel we enjoyed a beer on our balcony. In the evening there was fierce thunder and lighting, with heavy rain showers. The lightning caused a power cut, so no electricity, no wifi, no warm water to shower :-(

The next morning all was back to normal again. 

We enjoyed our stay in Alto Aldige a lot. 

to be continued

North Italy holiday: Friuli 1-3 June (Fossa Mala & Lis Neris)

vineyard of Lis Neris

Wednesday, 1 June: on our way to our next stop Agriturismo Fossa Mala, we visited the famous Roman Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta in Aguileia. The 4th century old Christian mosiac floor is the largest in Europe and really amazing. Aguileai was of great importance in roman times and beyond.  

 ** **

Fossa Mala

At Fossa Mala we tasted some of their wines and inspected the premises of our 'home for a nite'. In the evening we had a great dinner in the restaurant of Fossa Mala. There were two parties organized at the premises for teenagers turning 18 yrs old; phew lots of loud music, luckily it stopped around midnite.
When leaving the next morning we bought several bottles of their very nice Brut.

Thursday, 2 June (a national holiday in Italy, Dia de Replublica):
On our way to our next stop in Friuli: the winery & the Relais Lis Neris. Lis Neris wines are one of our favourite Italian white wines. 
We visited the wonderful gardens of villa Manin at Passariano: lots of detoriated statues, ponds and large old trees.

After a short disappointing stop in Udine, where it looked like everybody had abandoned the city (national holiday) nobody in the streets, it rained and I felt ill. 

Udine: piazza della Liberta, the Loggia del Lionello

We drove to our next stop Relais Lis Neris, where we were greeted kindly. 
We joined a tasting and tried some unknown wines and some wines we already knew. 

After the tasting it rained and we stayed at the premises. I stayed in our room coz my bowels were upset.  

Friday, 3 June

After breakfast, Livia took us for a tour to the Lis Neris vineyards. She gave lots of interesting info. We loved it. After the tour P. tasted/bought some wines. My stomach wasn't strong enough, so I refrained from tasting.

The journey continues to Termeno in Alto Adige (Sud Tirol), where we will explore more wineries.

On our way through the mountains we visited Belluno, where we had a lovely lunch. We were hungry coz we didn't eat much the day before. 

We crossed the Dolomites: heavy rain, mountain roads, snow and the pass where we stopped for a minute as it was 7 degrees and raining. 

Dolomites

passo Rolle at an altitude of 1975 meter

to be continued.