A day of travel. First of all by car to the airport, then Emirates to Dubai. We made a fruitless attempt to stop for coffee in Padova on the way. It was market day, and so finding a parking space was too hard so we just continued on to the airport. It is a relatively small airport, but fairly well organised. One piece of good news, our luggage was booked all the way through and we had boarding passes for both flights, so that made life a lot easier in Dubai.

The flight was once again uneventful, the food good and the wine OK, especially the NZ Sauvignon Blanc.

Getting out of the airport was easy, and we only had to spend a couple of minutes in the heat waiting for the fairly disorganised taxi queuing and then the short trip to the hotel. The rooms at the hotel were excellent, and the service good. G&S&P had a nightcap in the otherwise deserted bar (well it was 1am) before turning in.

Our last real day of holiday, tomorrow the journey home commences.

Today we visited Vicenza. We booked into an afternoon guided tour, and then wandered around the city. For lunch we stumbled upon a Slow Food Italy event in the main piazza, where stalls from many small regional areas were showcasing their food and wine. There was great bread, risotto, arancini, nuts, olives, wine etc. There were benches and tables provided so we could sit in the sun and enjoy it all. Very nice.

The guided walking tour focussed on Palladio’s contribution to Vicenza (and architecture in general). The Palladian style of neo-classical architecture has had an important impact on modern style. Highlights included the Olympic Theatre and the general streetscape of Vicenza, with the gothic, rennaisance and baroque exteriors.

No trip to Italy would be complete without a political demonstration, and the guided tour blundered into a street protest against hunting. The hunting season opened the next day. Very noisy, very colourful, well behaved. Lots of police.

The evening plan is to go back to Osteria Riviera for a last time.

Back to Marostica (again) to try to buy some stamps from La Partita. Eventually successful. In the meanwhile we visited the sublime cake shop in the main street. OK, I admit it. Two coffees and five cakes. There you go, I said it…

Then back to Bassano to do the laundry and some final shopping.

The highlight of the day was the “I funghi, meraviglie e delizie della natura” dinner at Ristorante Belvedere. We had noticed a poster advertising the dinner when we first arrived in Bassano, and I asked Francesca to book for us. The general structure was a menu based on funghi (eight cold antipasti, eight hot antipasti, main course) as well as wines, desert, grappa and coffee. All this was accompanied by a slide presentation in three parts on funghi… basic biology, varieties, history, culinary uses etc. etc. given by Pieremilio Cecon, clearly an expert and enthusiast.

For E45 per head this was a pretty good deal! It turns out that the matre d. had his honeymoon in Australia and so we received extra attention and wine throughout the evening. Experiences like this you can’t get in Oz. We even received a special 2009 funghi calendar for free!

Back to Marostica so that everybody else could climb the hill. I loitered in the main street waiting for them. The fruit shop had a great display of local berry fruits, so we bought and ate one punnet of raspberries and two of blackberries. They also had red currants, strawberries, blueberries and “forest strawberries”.

Then we drove to a baroque garden near Padova – quite a way on the autostrade. While we waited for the gardens to open after lunch we dined at a local hotel. Simple but good pasta dishes and local wine (Colli Euganai) .

The garden at Valsansibio is more modern than the renaissance ones that we have been seeing. It was designed by one of the Berninis. Lovely mature trees, fountains, a maze and a good mix of formal and informal elements.

For dinner we once again walked into town, over the ponte vecchio and to a pizzaria. Good pizza. The walk home did us good

Today we visited some of the peaks, valleys and mountan passes north of Bassano. Our first stop was Croce d’Aune, where there is the statue of S. Campagnolo, and where it is said that he invented the quick release for wheels, the first of many cycling inventions from the man and company. The roads were narrow and winding, but really great scenery! There are certainly no hills like this in Australia

The second stop was Passo Rolle. On the way up we passed herds of cows coming down the mountain as the summer season finishes. All very alpine, bells on the cows, crisp air and great views. We stopped at Rolle for a stretch break and to take some photos.

On then to Passo Valles. The attraction here is not at the top, it is the restaurant “Malga Valles Basso” which is just before the summit. This is a classic agritourismo destination, with the working dairy only 15 metres from the restaurant. The menu features the milk and cream produced at the dairy. We had excellent polenta and then (of course) berries and cream. Yum. The staff are all from the farm, and it seems that non-Italian visitors are relatively rare. We were certainly regarded as a curiosity by the other customers.

The route back took us through apple and pear orchards, and then down the steep descent to the Brenner pass north of Trento. The view from the top was spectacular! Snow to the north and west, the intensive agriculture of the valley floor and the steep valley sides with castles and monasteries flanked by vineyards.

When we got home, after all that driving we went for a walk into Bassano, then back to Osteria Riviera for dinner! Our host was very pleased to see us again.

Bassano for me, Venezia for everyone else. I dropped them off at the train, and amused myself until their return. I revisited Marostica, and climbed the hill to the top castle. It is a steep walk, but certainly worth it as the view is fantastic to the south. I also paid the parking fine which took the best part of two hours what with the queueing at the post office, the form not really coping with foreign addresses etc.

I picked up the tired but happy tourists from the train. We had dinner at a restaurant relatively close to our accommodation on th way home. Osteria Riviera is hosted by a very enthusiastic man with only basic English, which concerned him but we coped just fine. The food was very good. I had the rabbit which was decicious! We determined to revisit.

Today was a quiet day – doing the laundry and looking around Bassano. The only “downer” was getting a parking ticket in the process. We bought a couple of souvenirs, visited the Grappa museum etc.

We made the required pilgrimage to Nardini’s bar. Nardini’s has been making Grappa since the days of the Venetian republic. The family owned company survived Napoleon, WWI, WWII and is still going strong.

The bar is built into one end of the Ponte dei Alpini. This bridge is certainly the most famous photographic image of Bassano del Grappa. The design was by Palladio. The wooden piers allow it to handle the bumps and bruises that the swiftly flowing Brenta delivers up during the spring melt.

It has been destroyed several times, mostly by war. Each time but one it has been rebuilt to the original design. The one departure was an “improved” design in stone that lasted only a few short years before the stream destroyed it. They went back to the old design…

We bought some wine and cheese which was just fine for dinner.

I slept very well on the ferry, so all we really had to endure was the disorganisation and queue for breakfast and arrivals processing. However we were fairly quickly done: we crossed the road and only had a minute’s wait for a taxi. Off to the airport to pick up the car (actually we need not have rushed, as the car rental didn’t open till 8:30.)

The car was another Fiat van, so we loaded up, started the GPS and we were soon headed for Bologna. Navigation into the city centre was OK and we found Garry and Sandra without difficulties.

Under way again and only a couple of hours to Bassano. The country side changed from the drier Marche through to the intensive agriculture of the Po Plain. As we neared Bassano the mountains loomed ahead.

Our “no delay” morning meant that we had time for a stroll in Bassano del Grappa, a casual lunch and some sightseeing. We then headed out to the apartment (took a little finding, but we made it), were greeted by Francesca and settled in. Once again it turned out to be a great choice in terms of accommodation. Spacious, nicely furnished and decorated, in a quite location with garden and mountain views. Still only 5 minutes from the centre of town.

We headed off at 7pm to Marostica for the  Partita di Scacchi. I was really looking forward to this!  Our timing was perfect: we  got a parking spot right against the  city gate and had time for a pasta and wine dinner before the show commenced.

What a show it turned out to be! Parades in costume, live music, hundreds of performers, jugglers, the chess game, fireworks … all wonderful.

The actual game of chess played was not that great: W opened with both pawns at max, established good knight positions. The exchanges left W bishops in control of the centre, and W castled on the Q side to develop two rooks controlling the centre files.

B was always down on territory and could not develop bishops. W bishops and Q cleaned out the centre, leading to a two rook mate. If I was a chess expert I could say this more compactly I’m sure.

So all the formalities lasted from 2100 till midnight. Since this was the last performance (starts again in two years) there was the parade of all performers and crew, fireworks etc. It was just great!

While the traffic cleared we sat in a bar for coffee and (you guessed it). Home then around 0100!

We had the day to kill in Split, and that was sort of it. Farewells to the crew and other passengers, coffee, lunch, reading a book in the park. K&J&C did a tour of Diocletian’s Palace, but I was happy to sit in the park.

Then in the afternoon we we had a beer, found a porter, organised luggage, and off the the ferry. Once again it was the “Ivan Zalc”, with at least mostly the same crew.

It was good to have this day of R&R, because I was still recovering. The night had been so so, with the party folks next door hard at it. You can’t really blame them though, I might have done the same once.

In fact we were in the same cabin on the ferry, although Keith and Julie had to move down the corridor a little. This time the ferry was full, with most flat surfaces not part of a corridor covered in sleeping bags and inflatable beds. Not an issue for us in the reserved cabins, except the larger crowds for embarkation, disembarkation, meals etc.

We had an early dinner, drank my last bottle of Croatian red, and off to bed. Talk about heaven! This bed was bliss!! I slept like a baby.

A very nice day… I was feeling much better and we stopped for two nice swims. The first was at the famous “Golden Cape”. Here a thin finger of beach protrudes at the perpendiicular to the coast. It is very popular for swimming, covered in deck chairs and umbrellas. Like almost all the beaches we visted it is limestone pebbles rather than sand. I guess if the entire coastline is limestone you can’t expect sand.

All the limestone makes the country quite poor, with very little topsoil. Where it exists they have build extensive stone walls to retain it. Most of the islands have a barren interior, with little patches of settlement wherever crops can be grown, which is mostly where slopes coming down to the water have held enough soil. The number one crop is grapes, with olives, pommegranite, and vege gardens.

When we were under way again we had lunch, and it was the usual four course affair, tday with a goulash as the main course.

We stopped for the second swim in yet another lovely little sheltered bay. There are so many pleasure craft on the water that it would be rare to have a cove to yourself. Nevertheless there is water enough for everbody. Getting in and out of the water in these coves is somewhat problematic, as they frequently have a liberal sprinkling of sea urchins defending the shore. this one was OK though, Only a very few have a beach, so it is a matter of climbing out on the limestone boulders.