We have also been dealing with a bad round of flu/cold crud that seems to be lingering. We are anxious to get back to a healthy state. In the mean time, we did manage to see a couple houses and visit two castles, one in Soave and one in Valbona, two weekends ago and take a wonderful trip to Cinque Terre this past weekend. As we try to work around our health issues and also fit in time to see houses, we have mostly been doing close day trips.
Soave is between Vicenza and Verona. The town is known best for its white wine and its castle. The town is quaint and surrounded by vineyards that blanket the hills in all directions. Just above the town is a hill topped with a medieval castle.
The origins of the Soave Castle go back to the 10th century. It was an important fortress through to the 16th century when the improvement in ballistics made it obsolete. I guess the ole' bow and arrow and cavalry were the only things from which you could expect to be protected while hiding out in your castle. The kids loved it. They especially loved the grassy hill in the courtyard where they could log roll over and over again. I'm not sure if it's me, but the Italians all seem to have very well behaved children and I expect they were looking at us like we were some wild, cowboy Americans allowing their children to do such a thing. I justified this in my head with my usual, "try living in a two room hotel, in winter, with two preschoolers, and you might let your kids do it too."
After the castle, we found a nice enoteca in town where we sampled some Soave Classico and Soave Reccioto. Both were delicious and we added them to our growing collection of wines.
The day prior to this, we actually found another castle down around an area where we looked at a house. The house held promise of a quintessential Italian life. It was high on a hill that required driving up a winding road that was just wide enough to let our car pass (by the way, Italians love to zoom down roads like these in their little cars). The house had a large patio that overlooked a small town with a beautiful church and ever present bell tower, and you could see a couple children playing soccer in the square in front of the church. The view also gave a beautiful glimpse of the valley below the Berici hills. The land surrounding the house was planted with a vineyard, and the shed of the house came complete with wine making equipment. It was enchanting, but as with many houses, there were some fatal flaws; no place for any kind of storage, dated aging bathrooms and kitchen and flooring, and another bedroom would have been great.
The castle we saw after viewing the house was a suggestion from an Italian man who works in Chris' office. He and Chris apparently have conversations in the morning when they are the only ones there. During one of these conversations, he recommended the Valbona Castle. It was a picturesque castle that suddenly appeared on the horizon in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere.
We got out of the car to explore and found the castle actually held a little pizzeria/ bar/ cafe. The biggest surprise was a small...um, zoo? I don't know what to call it, but in the back were pens with llamas, donkeys, goats, all kinds of fowl from chicken, to geese, to peacocks. It was interesting, but most of all, the kids always love to see animals. There was also a bonus playground that was, as usual, filled with much more dangerous equipment than you would ever find at a playground in America. It's great! Chris got this particular thing spinning quite fast.
As I mentioned earlier, we also managed a wonderful trip to Cinque Terre this past weekend, but that deserves its own entry. It's an amazing place.
No comments:
Post a Comment