[Itinerary Page]The daily diary of a wandering restaurateur
May 13 - Veneto
The area of Italy known as the Veneto runs east from Verona to Venice. We arrived in Milan this morning after flying all night on an Alitalia 777 -- truly one of the more comfortable flights we have had. I can't speak for conditions in the coach, but the business class seats were very roomy and actually reclined far enough that sleeping was almost reasonable. (LOVE those frequent flyer miles!)
The first job upon arriving in Milan -- other than tracking down one of our bags that didn't make it to the baggage carousel (found it!) -- was to pick up the car and get out of town. We will be flying out of Milan in another three weeks and if we want to see any of the city, we will do it then. Our lodgings tonight are on the other side of Verona, about 2 hours to the east. Traffic on the autostada was heavy, particularly with massive trucks.
I quickly discovered that the Alfa Romeo 126 they gave us is a sweet performer ... but my feet are too wide for the pedal positioning! This is something I have never run into before. Maybe Italians have narrower feet, but it is virtually impossible for me to move my foot on to the gas pedal without hitting the edge of the brake pedal in the process. I will have to see about changing to a different car tomorrow as this situation does not feel safe. In the US we get so used to the widely spaced pedals of automatic transmissions but automatics are the exception in Europe, particularly in rental cars. I'll try to swap the cars when I go to Verona tomorrow to pick up my friend, Marv Hunt, when he arrives in Verona tomorrow night.
The B&B we were looking for was in Valbona, a wide spot in the road in the middle of the Colli Euganei area south of Vicenza. It barely shows up on any map and it took some cross-country dead reckoning and a few U-turns before we found it. Once we got into town, however, we couldn't find the B&B and nobody we spoke with in town had ever heard of it. It turns out that all their marketing is via the Internet. I was still surprised that in a small town everyone wouldn't know everyone else's business.
I had all the information on the place except, as it turned out, the address and phone number (duh!) so we drove into the slightly larger town of Este about five miles away, found an Internet café and looked up the numbers! Around then, we were ready for a breather anyway and a cold beer seemed like the best answer (it was!) We capped it off with gelato -- not the most likely combination but certainly two of the basic Italian food groups. We reached the B&B on the phone and made arrangements for them to meet us at the local castello (castle) and lead us back to the house.
The B&B goes by the name of Conca Verda (which means green valley) and is a pleasant country house on the side of a hill overlooking the valley. Our hosts are Stefania, Guiliano and their daughter, Elisa, a college student. Their English is minimal (Elisa does a little better) but Margene's Italian in improving. When in doubt, we switch to French! Amazingly international!
After settling in, Margene took a nap. I was dog tired but was afraid that if I slept I would either not wake up until 2am or not be able to get a decent sleep that night. Different strokes. We set off for dinner but the pickings were slim out here. The local restaurant in the Castello was closed on Monday and Tuesday as, apparently, was the pizzeria in the next town. By that time we didn't care -- we just wanted a bite to eat before we crashed. The solution turned out to be a local snack bar which I will explain in more detail with the photos for anyone who may be interested.
I had not been able to get online via my cell phone so our hosts invited us down to use their phone line and chat over a bottle of local wine. They are really pleasant people but conversation without a common language is exhausting!
Conca Verde and the Valbona Valley
Julie's bar in Este and the local snack bar
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