Day 5

We scheduled a tour of neighboring hill towns that lasted the entire day. We met our guide and the van at the bus parking lot that is at the end of the causeway that connects Venice to the mainland. There were a total of eight of us, a couple from London, an American couple and an elderly, elegant, interesting American woman.  All were quite pleasant particularly as the day wore on and there had been some alcohol consumption. Marco, our guide, was chatty, knowledgeable and interesting.

Our first stop was the town of Marostica, an ancient walled town famous for its “human chess game” that is held every other year in the main square of the town.

An internet picture of the square with the "chess board" and the castle

The main square is entered through a castle gate and there is another castle, partially in ruins, high on the hill visible from the town.

Street through town, old castle at top of hill

There was a market being held in the square which is always fun to wander through.

There were two interesting churches in the town that we had time to visit. One was attached to a monastery and was a typical small church with a nice altar. The other was more unique and was somewhat connected to the first by a long uphill street followed by lots of stairs. The art in this church was unique in that they were in pastels rather than the typical darker colors.

Our next stop was the town of Bassano di Grappa. Most famous for the production of grappa, a potent liquor distilled from grape skins and seeds remaining after pressing grapes for wine. It is a very picturesque town with a covered bridge over the river Brenta designed by Palladio that has been destroyed and rebuilt on many occasions, the last during WW II but also destroyed by Napoleon. The buildings adjacent to the bridge have bullet holes said to be from Napoleon.  The area is beautiful around the bridge.

After visiting the bridge, we meandered through this pleasant town to a place that makes grappa. We tasted various permutations of the original including lemon flavored (good), cappucino flavored (too sweet), blueberry flavored (OK) and original (firewater!) 

Next was the hilltown of Asolo, considered one of the "most beautiful towns of Italy." It was indeed a beautiful little town that we walked through before having a rustic lunch in a 100 year old restaurant that had great gnocchi. Annette had gnocchi with anchovies (she's got a real thing for those fishy, salty things), I had gnocchi with asparagus and mushrooms and Anabel had gnocchi with tomato sauce. They WERE excellent gnocchi and were accompanied by a rustic red house wine. 

We visited a palace owned by Catherine Cornaro, a member of a family that produced several doges during the 15th century. She became queen of Cyprus through marriage. Great views from the palace.

                                                            

Next up was a typical Palladian villa, the palazzo Maser. It's still occupied by the family so only a few rooms were able to be seen. Of of the most unique aspects of the visit was the incredible shoe covers we were required to wear (unfortunately, neglected to get a picture.) They were like large bedroom slippers that required us to shuffle unsteadily across the floors. We decided it was a way for the palazzo to save money on floor cleaning. There was also a self portrait by Veronese that was interesting and some nice views over the vineyards of the owner.

Self portrait of Veronese

Attractive outbuilding of palazzo

Last up was a visit to Ca' Salina, a winery that makes only prosecco. We tasted a number of prosecco's and though they were tasty, we were a bit overloaded by then. 

We were driven back to the bus station and walked home to walk off the effects of a lot of food and significant quantities of wine and prosecco.
We opted for gelato for dinner.