I have been wanting to go back to Italy for ages, since I
have been in the UK I have been to Sardinia (which after Dean recently went I
feel like I did not experience fully) and Skiing – which is not like a proper
food holiday in Italy. So when I got an invite to join the boys on holiday I
jumped at the chance to see Italy again, but mainly to eat as much Italian food
as possible.
So after a relatively quiet Christmas we headed off on the
26th December for our flight to Italy joined by Mark, Shawn, Lorry and
his cousin Fabs.
Our main base would be Castelfranco (or Castel Del Franco as
I like to refer to it as) and we planned to do a few trips out to see other
places
Venice
The last time I was in Venice was when I was 16 and I was
keen to go again, so with the weather forecast predicting it getting colder we
decided to head off earlier rather than later. So we took a train there on the
27th and started exploring. We didn’t have any goal in mind and just
headed off wondering around exploring areas that none of us had been to, we
made a roundabout way to St Marks Basilica but unfortunately on the way it
started raining and that was the end of us being dry.
Trying to find somewhere to get out of the rain, to sit and
have a drink, proved quite difficult as in Venice you pay to sit which meant
that all the coffee shops were filled with people standing around, and Venice
not bring the UK there were not countless amounts of pubs around. We eventually
found a place to hide away from the rain and had our first Aperol Spritz.
We couldn’t stay inside for ever so went out and saw the
Basilica and walked around a bit more before ducking in for a coffee and
decided we should head back to the train, as we exited the restaurant we were
greeted with snow which was very exciting and on our walk home the excitement
diminished as the toes froze more and more. At the train station our cancelled
trains helped everyone dry out a bit.
Bolzano
Taking a scenic train ride to Bolzano we headed to the
mountains to be in the foothills of the Dolomites, our train ride was lovely
and snowy but unfortunately in Bolzano there was no snow. After arriving and
heading to our hotel to check in early we found we could not do that so headed
all the way back into town to grab some lunch. Because Bolzano is so close to
Austria the town is pretty much hardly Italian at all and with pretzel
Christmas decorations lining the streets and Strudel lining the bakery windows
we headed to a pub for some good Austrian food.
We did a lot of walking around the town and got a gondola up
the mountain to a little town that is up there and did a little walk around
which was stunning with the snow capped dolomites in the background.
We headed to Merano for a bit of thermal spa action at
Therme Meran (http://www.termemerano.it/index.php?lang=3)
which was a delightful warm haven out of the cold nights air.
Asolo
This was where Lorry studied and we just spent a few hours
there having a walk around and walk up to the castle.
New Years
We spent New Years at Lauras house and we were treated to a
Italian feast with lots of starters, then a lasanga antipasti followed by a
main and then about 6 desserts. After that we were supposed to go into town but
it was a fairly cold evening and no one really felt like standing outside so we
had a relaxed evening in. We were mostly with Italian people so in the
beginning it was slightly stilted but later on everyone warmed up, but by that
time it was about 3am so it was home time for us.
Bologna
Bologna was something we fitted in as we had an extra day to
do something so we found cheap accommodation and headed off. After the Italians
at New Years not really having anything to recommend there I was not expecting
much but was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed the home of Bolognaise. We had
one of our nicest dinners there when Mark, Lorry, Shawn and I ended up walking
around for ages trying to find an open restaurant, after our first four choices
were closed we finally got to an open one about 45 min later and it was a good
fine. House wine was tasty as was our lasagne and cortello (basically a cutlet
with parma ham on top covered in a cheese sauce) – heaven on a plate.
Citadella
With our flight only being at 10pm we had almost an extra
day so we drove to Citadella where we had Bruschetta, not as I know it as it
was almost like a pizza but on bruchetta bread. And then took a walk around the
city castle. This was great as the sun was setting while we were walking and
created a spectacular view.
And that was pretty much Italy. Lots and lots of eating and
lots of laughs with the LOL Dogs.
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