Bassano del Grappa

 June 12 - 15, 2022

The ride to Bassano del Grappa was without incident, which is high praise for summer travel in Italy. We followed the shore road up towards Venice before heading northwest towards Padova. The only traffic we hit was just before entering Bassano but it was short-lived and gave us a chance to enjoy looking at some of the really small villages in the area.  We stayed at a hotel Cindy and I both enjoy, one that is outside of the walled city but only a ten minute walk to all the action, thus we had a quiet room away from all the tourists. 

I had booked a reservation at a restaurant we knew since Sunday lunches in Italy can fill up a all the good places. Strangely they asked if I wanted a Superior table or Inferior table, not knowing the difference I opted for Superior.  Upon entering it became clear that the Superior tables were three steps up from the entry while the others were in the lower restaurant. They were about to seat us at a table next to a large family group with lots of young kids who even at this early stage of lunch were running around like banshees.  I immediately told them to seat us downstairs, which turned out to be a great decision.  

The food and wine were divine and gave us lots of time to catch up with Valley and Kent, their cruise news, and family updates.  The service in the restaurant was really professional and it was a great way to start our time together.  We took a long walk after lunch to give them an orientation to the old town, which is still one of the most beautiful in Italy.  There are three major piazzas that spill into one another and then small streets that run off of the piazzas, some heading to the river, others crisscrossing the walled city. There was virtually no traffic and lots of folks out for a stroll and afternoon coffee. It felt like home again since we had lived only about forty minutes away back in the early 1980s and used to visit often.

The hotel concierge had recommended a restaurant called Bella Capri for dinner and since there weren't a lot of options on a Sunday night we decided to try it.  Any fears we had that it was too touristic or that it cut corners on the food since it was in such an obvious location for vacationers were dashed.  The food was excellent and so was the service - they put us way in the back of the hotel near the kitchen which was actually perfect.  The kitchen door would swing open and we could smile at the chef quite often.  We ordered several dishes to share family style, including mussels and cuttlefish and grilled vegetables to start, then penne with shrimp and spaghetti vongole and pizza.  My but it was delicious.

The next day I was suckered into visiting two - count them, two different museums - all in the same day!  The first one was in an old medieval estate called Palazzo Sturm set above the River Brenta. There were 70 rooms in the villa which was owned by a family that controlled the printing business in all of Italy and in huge chunks of Europe.  They printed everything from books to wallpaper, lithographs to graphic novels. There is only so much one can see and appreciate about setting type and producing paper and I mentally checked out after fifteen minutes. In the same building was the museum of ceramics, which did have some interest to me and some of the examples were just drop dead beautiful, as were the rooms and halls where they were displayed.  After an hour or so of this I was rather proud of the fact that I had done two museums and suggested we go have a glass of Prosecco, only to be told that this was ONE museum and we had to walk across town for the other.  Told you I was suckered!

The second museum was in a former Franciscan Monastery with a lovely flowered courtyard. It was huge with the second floor having been a large church and that is where most of the large paintings were displayed.  The ground floor had displays on the history of the city as well as some relics and other church related items. After about forty minutes I was punch drunk on culture and started renaming the pictures. I must say that some of my titles were quite wonderful and at one point I thought Val was going to wet her pants laughing. It is a good thing we were the only people in the museum since the laughter rang out for the rest of our visit.

We made a beeline to a beer hall only to discover that it was closed, as were most other places since Monday is a day of rest for the hospitality business.  We did find a corner bar with a lovely hostess and proceeded to have some ice cold Prosecco and bottles of water. We decided to have gelato for lunch since it had gotten late and we didn’t want to go looking for a restaurant (and also didn't want to spoil dinner). Right next to us was a gelateria turning out some darn good looking ice cream so we all had a cone and then walked back to the hotel for well deserved naps.

After a long post-nap walk we had aperitivi in one of the squares and people-watched for a hour or so and then went back to Bella Capri for dinner.  Yes, back to the same restaurant we had dined in the night before and would dine in the next day. Sometimes you just have to break  rules and one of ours is not to dine in the same place twice since there is so much to discover and so little time, but there are exceptions!  We had eaten quite well the night before and the service was impeccable as was the ice cold house white wine at only 10 euros per liter. It was another fun filled, food filled, wine filled evening of laughter and story telling.

Our last day in Bassano was highlighted by a luncheon with one of Cindy’s colleagues from Moscow. Patricia taught French and became a good friend and dining companion during our year in Russia back in 2010-11. She is married to a retired US Army officer who used to fly helicopters and was stationed at the same base where I used to teach in Vicenza Italy. We had never met him but they own a home near Bassano so Cindy contacted Patricia and we arranged to meet. They had a friend staying with them and she came to lunch also at this very local pizza joint near the hotel. You never know how these things are going to work out but from the minute we saw them it was like we had all been old friends for many years. James and I ended up talking about everything under the sun while their friend Gracie talked with Kent and Valley about a range of topics from teaching to walking the Appalachian Trail. Cindy and Patricia had a grand time catching up and remember old friends, and the food and wine were marvelous.  It was a wonderful three-hour luncheon with the requisite "we must do this again soon" parting comment.  I for one hope we do!

The next day we were off to Rapallo…….