Ovunque tu vada, vacci con tutto il cuore!

Wherever you go, go with all your heart. ~ Confuscious

This journey to Italy, is indeed travel, but within the grand scope of moving for three years...we have the luxury of additional travel.  While there are lots of European adventures ahead, we have done some local travel and find that every day, we are truly blessed by where we are living.  There are so many things to see and do, really within 30 minutes of our home. And we are meeting wonderful people along the way!

Asiago!! Cheese, what's not to LOVE! Well, there is so much more and boy did we have a wonderful time exploring.  First up, we met some friends who live in Asiago and they were gracious enough to be our tour guides for a great weekend!  Our itinerary included a Cheese Factory Tour, fireside drinks, a lovely bed and breakfast, fantastic dinner, and wandering to a few beautiful sites.

The cheese factory, Caseifico Pennar, has been around since 1927.  It was beyond spotlessly clean.  We went through the process from raw milk to fresh cheese to aged cheese.  It really was fascinating.  And for those of you who only think of Asiago as a substitute for Parmesan cheese, you are missing out.  After the factory tour, we went to the cheese shop and tasted. Seriously, who knew cheese could be this good.  Smoked, fresh, aged 1 year, 2 years, or 3 years....Delicioso!!!  And we learned to keep it in paper, not the dreaded Ziploc bags that bring on mold.  It was Fabulous!!!

After our cheesilicious afternoon, we met up for fireside cocktails at our B&B before heading off to a delightful dinner.  In the morning we dined on a traditional Italian breakfast before doing a bit of exploring.  We saw some beautiful sights, including a bit of a traffic jam.  If Little Bo Peep is missing her sheep, I know where they are!

 We stopped by a beautiful golf course and spa for an afternoon beverage.  The views, as you can see, were spectacular.  I really am going to have to pull out the thesaurus for more superlatives, because stunning, just doesn't cut it.  Thank you Sarah and Mauro for hosting us on a great weekend getaway!

 

After such an exhausting and trying weekend (just kidding), I needed to unwind and it was a good thing that I had signed up for "Wine Down Wednesday", one of the events that the Army Recreation Department puts on....for the Alphabet Soup Acronym fans....that is MWR. 

The green is the mountain!

 Wine Down Wednesday, is a trip to a vineyard for what else...wine tasting.  Oh, and a tour.  This beautiful winery is located in Bassano del Grappa and is built into the hill/mountain.  They do spectacular things, using nature and the environment in their wine production.  Lenora, was our lovely tour guide; she is the daughter of the owners, and it was her 21st birthday. She explained how the mountain keeps the wines at an even temperature, without any electronics.  The casks are kept  at a cool even temperature using only mother nature.  It took the stone mason one month just to cut the stones that line the ceiling of the room.

Tasting room view

The beautiful view from the tasting room, overlooks the vineyard.  The family runs the winery, a restaurant and produces olive oil.  We were treated to a lovely lunch and some of the best wines.  I forced myself to limit my purchases to 2 bottles, one white and one red....and a bottle of olive oil that they also use grapes it.....delish!!  Oh, and conveniently, the wines go just perfect with the cheese that we purchased in Asiago, the neighboring town!

After our wine tasting, we stopped in Marostica for a quick visit. I think it was to sober up the moms who were due to pick their kids up from school, but don't tell anyone! 

Marostica is best known for it's live chess matches, complete with living pawns and horses.  In the town square, the chess board is hard to miss.

Town Square and Chess Board

The Castle wall is gorgeous and boasts 360 views from the top.  Not enough time to walk around it, but that will definitely be another day's adventure!

Panoramic view from the Alpini Bridge

Well, after my Wine Down, I decided that I needed to see a bit more of Bassano del Grappa, so I drug Craig along....no kicking and screaming involved.  He readily agreed to go for a ride up the hill with the top down!  Our main attraction for the day was the Alpini Bridge.  It was built in 1569, by none other than Andrea Palladio (a very busy man!) and is wooden.  It has been rebuilt several times, including, after being destroyed in WWII.  The bridge, also known as Ponte Vecchio, spans the Brenta River.

The Bridge!

View of the mountains from the bridge

 It is much larger than the pictures seem to show and gives such striking views!

Beautiful Rapids

We had lunch at a small cafe, just beyond the bridge.  The sun was shining and the smoked chicken salad was heavenly!!

Strolling across the bridge

 After enjoying the bridge and all of the splendid views, we wandered through town and came upon the Grappa museum.  Now, I have not tasted Grappa yet.  Craig's opinion is that it tastes like sticks and grass, of course, I thought boys liked sticks and grass, but apparently not.  I plan on setting up a Grappa tasting soon, because with all of these bottles, there has to be more flavors than sticks and grass!  

Now that's a lot of minis!

Part of the museum had a fantastic "bouquet" display.  You could press a button and smell the different aromas from the different flavors of Grappa. They were wonderful and definitely ones that I would like to try.....and somehow they missed setting up the sticks and grass scent! 

This was a beautiful copper still that was used in the Grappa production. The museum was great, in that you could just wander through and see what you liked.  I can't wait for our Grappa tasting!!


I didn't realize that with this move, I would become the Cruise Director on this Love Boat, but I sure am enjoying it!

Next stop......Panettone and Nove Pottery!!  And we'll see what other hidden treasures I can find!

Ciao for Now!