My mom came to visit for nearly three weeks this past fall, and suffice to say, we had a fantastic time. The end.Oh, who am I kidding? If that was all I had to say, I wouldn't be blogging about it! I haven't said anything hear about it yet for many reasons. Partly because we crammed in so much stuff I didn't know where to start, and partly because between the two of us we took a few thousand photos. I got to introduce her to a few of my friends, and she even went on a couple outings without me. Highlights included a cooking class with Lucas, a long weekend in Rome, a quick visit to the Scrovegni Chapel in Padova, and a gumbo night at home. Also wine. Lots and lots of wine.
The day after she arrived, we visited Marco Mosconi winery as part of a group outing. I knew a few people there, but not many. That didn't stop us from enjoying ourselves! They were actively de-stemming the grapes on the day of our visit, and we also got to see the attic where they dry grapes for Valpolicella and Amarone. The wine was tasty and we particularly enjoyed their recioto, but honestly the price points weren't very wallet friendly, especially compared to some of my other favorite places. Since we were out that direction, we also fit in a visit to the Bonamini olive oil folks and had a delicious lunch in Soave.
Man, if I treat this like a straight-up recap, this is going to be one long blog post! I counted it up once, and I think Mom visited something like twenty cities in a 19-day trip - and that is with me working part-time while she was here! We went to Florence and did a hop-on hop-off bus tour. I would say save your money and just walk, but it was worth it to go on the other side of the river and see the city from that side. Plus, we did get some of the history on the bus ride that we might not have learned otherwise. We elected not to go in any of the museums, but we still saw so many incredible sites/sights that it was a fantastic day. Speaking of views, I also took her to Monte Berico to show off Vicenza and the green-roofed Basilica. We went into the church there and had a grand time poking around, but she particularly fell in love with the mother-children statues in the park across the street.
On another of the closer-to-home days we went to a cooking class. It ended up being a super small class but we still had a fantastic time! I forget what all we made, but it included focaccia and a deliciously simple chicken and sausage stew. I'm glad we had that experience together, because we went to Monselice to visit a castle and eat at the pub enoteca, but the enoteca was closed! Boo! The castle was beautiful and our guide was very knowledgeable, so it was worth the visit. We also trekked up the hill to the Santuario della Siette Chiese - Sanctuary of the Seven Churches. That's another place with a great view. I always get Montagnana and Monselice mixed up, but that's probably because I visited each of them twice within a month of each other, and saw a palio in each town. Unfortunately, there were no races when Mom was here, but I did get her to both cities. We had a great lunch in Montagnana - refreshing salads with combinations of meats and cheeses and fruits on top.
On one of the days I had to work, my beautiful friend Carolina took Mom to Marostica and Bassano del Grappa. Apparently there's a delightful chocolate shop in Bassano; I've never visited it, but I was lucky enough to sample many of their goodies! I think Mom got a kick out of both places.
I really wanted to take Mom to Lake Garda, but also wanted to visit some place I'd never been before. On a whim, we decided to head to Bardolino. And guess what: there was a wine festival going on! We wandered around and explored the different vendors' wares, and of course sampled some wine and local risotto. There were a surprising number of German and Austrian tourists there. Despite the overcast sky and persistent drizzle, we had a great day. We even walked along the waterfront a significant way, and really enjoyed the thoughtfulness of the bike/walking path. You can pretty much stroll from town to town on that path without a whole lot of elevation change, and it's a nice way to see the lake. We even saw an older fisherman out there throwing nets, and some of the locals stopped to ask if he was catching any fish.
I'm trying to think what all else we got up to. We went to Venice and Murano, and I definitely turned Mom loose in downtown Vicenza by herself one day. She successfully navigated the bus, too, more than once! She also did a walking tour of Vicenza with Lucas on a market day - not as much fun as a pub crawl or wine and cheese tasting, but still probably interesting. We visited Villa Sceriman winery one day, too. Oh and we even picked up pizza and watched an LSU football game! Score! (Ha ha, literally.)
Another day trip we took was to Padova, and I'm so glad we went. I'd only been once or twice before, and always with a purpose. (No, Ikea does not count.) I finally went into St. Anthony's Cathedral and thought it was absolutely breathtaking. Definitely one of the more impressive structures I've visited since I moved to Europe. We also visited the Scrovegni Chapel, which was the point around which our trip revolved. We had a few minutes before our time slot to explore the courtyard and souvenir store. We entered a room with the rest of our group and watched a short video, and then went into the chapel itself. Y'all. It was amazing. Giotto's work is incredible. Our time was limited, as they don't want scads of tourists breathing our toxic air out and contaminating the space too much, so I tried to keep my eyes open the entire time so as not to miss any of the stunning details. Too bad I had to blink from time to time. I also learned that the Star of Bethlehem is sometimes depicted as a shooting start because of Giotto's painting in this chapel. Turns out Haley's comet made an appearance while he was working on this project!
Toward the end of her visit, Mom and I took a long weekend in Rome. We stayed at the great little Fellini hotel, and it was in a great location for exploring. We walked from the train station and settled in before heading off to our free walking tour. Our guide was an older gentleman and architect by trade, and we thoroughly enjoyed his enthusiasm and energy. Our meeting point was the Spanish Steps, and it only took about ten minutes to walk their from our hotel, if that. We walked by too many interesting and important things for me to list them all out, but we ended at the Trevi Fountain (which was still under construction). The front desk guy at the hotel gave us a restaurant recommendation (we ate their twice because we loved it so much!) and we also noticed a flyer for an opera while we were standing at the front desk. The front desk guy made the booking for us, and we got to see La Traviata the next day! It was dinner theater, so our expectations were frankly kind of low. But I should have known in Italy they respect their opera and do it right! It was a small house with a very talented cast, and we enjoyed the intimate setting. I think the last time I saw an opera with my mom was in something like 2005 at the Glimmerglass Summer Festival! Hopefully it's not another decade before we do it again.Our second day we had tickets to the Vatican, and that was pretty much an all-day affair. It was also pretty rainy that day, so I'm glad we picked an indoor activity. It ended up being a bit more walking (to, at, and from) than we were expecting, but I'm glad we went. It was honestly overwhelming and mind-boggling to behold all of those treasures. There's no way you could ever see and read about everything in there, though that didn't stop us from trying! We also wanted to see the Basilica, but decided to turn left instead of right when we were done (Don't do it! Turn right!) so we literally circumnavigated the entire Vatican on foot. By the time we got to St. Peter's, we were tired and I was also a bit grumpy, so we took some pictures and then made our way back to the room to put our feet up a while before the opera.
On Sunday we went to the Coloseum and Roman Forum, and spent most of the day doing that as well. I have no idea why, but there were some guys in front of the Coloseum blowing up GIANT white balloons - as big as a small car! They made a very pretty foreground to the Coliseum with the beautiful blue sky above. That's right, we got lucky with the weather and it was great for our outdoor day. Once we were done there, we headed back to "our" part of town and did some more wandering. We wanted to spend a few more minutes at some of the sites we saw on our free walking tour, so we retraced many of our steps but also left plenty room for exploring. One of our favorite finds was actually a little jazz group playing in front of a church - in the middle of a shopping district! We hung out for several songs and got our toes tapping pretty good. I think Mom even bought one of their cds to bring back.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please be respectful here.