A road trip to Italy came as an unexpected opportunity because Michelle was asked to travel to the Army post in Vicenza to teach one of her financial planning classes to soldiers preparing to leave the Army. She asked if we wanted to go too, we said yes (duh!), so she rented a car and off we went ....
First stop: Innsbruck, Austria. It was about half-way to Italy, 2pm, so it seemed like a good spot to take a break. Another beautiful city that did not disappoint, made ever so lovely by the backdrop of mountains on the horizon.
Good time to stop for fresh strudel and hot cappuccino!
Love those Alps!
Leaving Austria, the autobahn takes you through the Alps and the change in scenery makes it obvious that you are not in Germany anymore. The steep-pitched roofs and beautiful flower gardens are replaced by vineyards and olive trees, literally climbing up the mountain side.
After settling in at the army hotel in Vicenza, Michelle went to work and we took the train to Venice! Once again, I gotta say that I just love travelling by train. Parking is such a hassle and the train drops you right in the middle of where you want to be. So, an hour later, here we are ...
Canal life is just as busy as the street life.
Another reason to love Italy -- the wine!
Dan loves his German beer, but while we were in Italy, it was wine with every meal. One night, the wine was so good, we each got our own ... one white, one red.
St Marks Basilica ... another huge accomplishment of the Catholic church.
Another city where we caught the last train back.
Saturday, our last day in Vicenza was a full one, as Michelle had her eye on the pottery factories in Nove, Italy, where you can purchase hand-made, high end Italian pottery for about 20% of retail. And we had our eye on a couple of vineyards. It ended up being a perfect combination ... we filled up the back of the car with pottery and every spare space inside with wine!
The choices at the pottery factory were amazing ... and overwhelming. Fortunately for us, the factory was not very crowded so we had the run of the showrooms which are literally packed with shelves of all types of pottery.
And, fortunately for us, Michelle had already decided on Vietri pottery, so we set about spending all her money on stocking her china hutch with everything she should need for every big dinner occasion for the rest of her life! Big plates, small plates, salad bowls, pasta bowls, dessert bowls, serving platters, serving bowls, candle stick holders, gravy boat, sugar bowl, creamer .. oh my! So much fun ... especially when you looked up the retail prices for this stuff.
Vietri Pottery
Next up ... our turn! Off to the vineyard. We chose Villa Sceriman after hearing from Michelle's friends that they have an extensive tasting room, and food to go along with it (which proved to be a good thing after tasting all that wine and really wanting to sit down with a glass of your favorite).
So cool to drive along vineyards that were dotted with red and white grapes. Kinda like Christmas!
We tasted everything they had to offer -- just to make sure we didn't miss anything!
I actually sent Dan out to the car to double-check how much room we had for wine!
I love Italy!
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