Italy - Lido

http://www.venicelido.it/

For most of the places that I am covering from our Italy trips, I went with the nephew of my aunt's late husband. There were no blood ties, but it was kind of like they were cousins.

Venice was the exception. GianLuigi is an actual cousin, and he loves Venice and goes there all the time,  so you could not have a better guide.

I will write about Venice proper next week, but as part of that day he took me over to Lido.

"Lido" is an Italian word for beach, which is probably how it came to mean a public pool or beach in English, which is certainly how you get the lido deck (the deck with the pool) on cruise ships.

Lido di Venezia is an island in the lagoon. You get there via vaporetto - a water taxi or bus.

People expect it to be crowded, but I think it depends on when you go. If you go at the time of the Venice Film Festival, it would certainly be crowded. If you go during August, when everyone takes off for the beach, it would probably be crowded. I was there in October, and although the skies were blue, and it wasn't really cold, it was practically deserted.

When you travel there are moments where it really hits you that you have gone far away. I had one of those moments on the beach here. Previously every time that I had been at a beach I was looking at the Pacific. Here I realized I was looking at the Adriatic, and that I was on the other side of the world.

We walked around the beach a little, and down tree-lined avenues going past hotels that were quiet, even if that is not their normal mode. We stopped for lunch at a little cafe where I had chicken, and the side dish was gnocchi with quattro formaggi sauce. When we make gnocchi at home, it is the main course, and I had never had quattro formaggi before, though it is really good - I highly recommend it.

There was a very peaceful feeling here. I don't know that everyone will have the same experience, but for me Lido was a perfect part of a perfect day. And that's kind of being dishonest, because if I think about the full day, I can remember that the train ride back was really crowded, or that the constant going up and down over bridges over canals and the cobblestones in Venice proper wears you out. I mentally know that, but when I look back on the day it feels golden and beautiful, and Lido may have been the most golden part of all.

Italy - Bassano del Grappa

http://www.italyheaven.co.uk/veneto/bassano-del-grappa.html

Bassano was one of my favorite towns.

Again, it is one where the proper name can be important. Italy has four Bassanos plus one San Bassano. When you're in Vicenza, the Bassano is Bassano del Grappa.

"Grappa" itself is an after-dinner drink that is made from the leftovers of grapes after wine-making. It can be anywhere from 35-60 percent alcohol (70 to 120 US proof). We don't drink, but our Italian family does, and one time we were out to dinner with them there had already been bottles of red, white, and sweet wine, but when the grappa came out, that was when people really started being more obviously cheerful. It's not exactly that they were drunk, but the effect was noticeable.

Bassano is famous for the Grappa, but is is also famous for the Old Bridge.

There has been a bridge over the Brenta River since at least 1209. The current model was designed in 1568 by Palladio, and has been destroyed and rebuilt since then, continuing with the wooden design which helps with the flooding.

When we were there it was hard to imagine flooding. The water was so clear and peaceful that you could look down and watch the trout swimming lazily.

It was a town where the feeling of peace belied the past in general. There was a row of trees that looked carefully landscaped lining one street. In the tavern where we ate lunch, there was a picture of them with a caption explaining that the members of the resistance who were caught during the war were hung from them. There are pictures of them hanging.

In the center of town there is a map of where the city was shelled and the damage that it took during that same wore. Bassano paid a pretty heavy price. The feeling that I came away with was that Bassano had earned its peace.

It's also worth mentioning that I had the best sandwich I've ever had here. Try the panini tricolore if you get a chance. It represents the colors of the Italian flag - red, white, and green - with prosciutto, mozzarella, and lettuce.

Italy - Marostica

Not only can I not find any pictures of Marostica; it doesn't even appear to have a dedicated web site.

(They do have a section on the National Cherry site: http://www.cittadelleciliege.it/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=122:comune-di-marostica-vi&catid=29&Itemid=263 )

That seems like a reason not to write about it, but I liked it there. I am just going to write about what we did.

There is an upper and lower castle, and a wall that flows down the hill. A better example of that architectural style might be Soave, where I have not been yet, but it is still impressive here.

We started at the lower castle. The big draw is the piazza, with its giant chessboard. They have a pageant every two years with a life-size chess game, dancing, and fireworks, re-enacting a play about a king wanting to keep his daughter's two suitors peaceful. If that doesn't sound like enough tension, even though both men are pursuing the one daughter, she is in love with only one of them, and her sister is in love with the other.

For the purposes of the pageant this is apparently treated as history. In reality, apparently playing regular-size chess in the piazza became popular with veterans after World War I, and they talked about doing a game with living pieces. The play was written then, but the large board did not get built until after World War II.

We looked at this, and then my guides noticed an English woman getting very irritated with the barista, so they offered me to translate. Actually, the girl understood the woman's order perfectly, she was just offering her other things and chattering in a very friendly manner, which was greatly irritating the Brit. "And that's ALL," she kept repeating. Assuring her that she was getting her coffee - and only her coffee - did not take away the aggravation of having to deal with so much incomprehensible cheer. Well, it was kind of early in the day. Maybe the coffee helped.

We then headed for the upper castle, driving along narrow winding roads. The route was less direct than I would have expected. One thing I remember is passing a sign that I believe said "La Via delle Ciliegie": the Way of the Cherries. I learned later that they have a local cherry variety that they are famous for. What occurred to me at the time was that those trees all along the road must be cherry trees, and it would be very beautiful when they were blooming.

From the upper castle you can look down the hill, and it is a good view. The thing I remember most is that there was a school group there for lunch. It looked like there were about thirty kindergarten students - all in matching uniforms - and it looked like they were being watched by just two nuns. Those seemed like bad odds, but they were so cute.

Anyway, I found it scenic, and a good place to go. I am sure the pageant gets crowded, but I wouldn't mind seeing that some day as well.

Italy - Romeo and Juliet

Three Shakespeare plays are set in Verona: The Taming of the Shrew, Two Gentlemen of Verona, and Romeo and Juliet. As far as I know, Romeo and Juliet are the only ones that have landmarks. These landmarks stretch across two cities.

I have been to La Casa di Giulietta, in Verona. I can't find my pictures of it. The inside is a museum, but the most popular aspects of the site are in the courtyard.

First is the balcony. It's pretty high up, and with the courtyard being stone, jumping up or down would seem risky. Nonetheless it's there, and while we visited there were two pigeons up there close together, which seemed appropriate.

There is also a statue of Juliet there. Tradition states that if you rub her right breast you will be lucky in love. We didn't do that because it seemed tacky, but we noticed then that the right breast was polished and shiny from all the rubbing. That was in 2006. In 2014 it was cracked and worn, and removed for repair.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/veronas-juliet-statue-damaged-beyond-repair-love-seeking-tourists/

There is also a place for graffiti, where writing the name of you and your love is supposed to guarantee that the relationship will last. Curators are trying to get this to where people will write on white sheets or some other material than the actual house, but at least it's not locks tearing the bridge down. There is also a wall where people can place letters to Juliet, which the Club Juliet will collect and answer as seen in the film Letters to Juliet (which was not a good movie, but some of the scenery gave some feelings.)

Also within the city is La Tomba di Giulietta, her tomb. This has become a wedding destination.

One of the places I did not make it to, but my family did, was Montecchio Maggiore. They just called it Montecchio, but if you look there is more than one.

They explained to me that Montecchio is Montague with Italian pronunciation. At first that made it seem that perhaps Verona was Juliet's city and Montecchio was Romeo's, but actually it is that Verona, in the city, was their winter home, and Montecchio was more country, so where they spent the summers. Montecchio has both a Castle of Juliet and a Castle of Romeo.

At this point you might be wondering, wait, are these stories real? It's a good question. There are very vague ties to actual history. The name of the street where Juliet's house resides, Capello, sounds similar to Capulet, but good also just mean that there was a hat maker there.

There is more than the Shakespeare play. Before the play there was an epic poem by Albert Brooke, preceded by a novella by Matteo Bandello, and before that a story by Luigi di Porta. Bandello wrote stories as if they were true, based on stories that other people told each other. It is entirely possible that there was something there, even if there are only very basic elements like a family feud, young people in love, and a suicide.

Does that make the landmarks really connected? Maybe not. People were calling Juliet's Tomb hers in the 1800's, so it wasn't just after the movie came out in the '30s and revived interest, but it still isn't the same as historical documentation that this is her, or we would know for sure that there was a her.

Even though the damage to the statue kind of annoys me, the statue is from the 1970's, so it is not an important piece of archeology.

Italy is full of very ancient history and traditions, and sometimes revival to remember the ancient history. Sometimes the path of something is hard to trace. That will be worth remembering when we get to Marostica and Parco Querini.

In Verona, you still have a Unesco World Heritage Site, with many things to see, and it is not a terrible thing to take in the house and tomb while you are there. In Montecchio,  you are still seeing castles that are over a thousand years old, whether some of their eventual inhabitants included star-crossed lovers or not.

Adjust your attitude accordingly.

http://www.verona.com/en/guide/verona/casa-di-giulietta/

http://www.verona.com/en/guide/verona/tomba-di-giulietta/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montecchio_Maggiore