Let's get out of this country: Bassano del Grappa

A week ago on Sunday I went with Marco and Cristina to Cristina's home town of Bassano del Grappa. Bassano is located at the base of the foothills of the Alps and is quite beautiful. We came to celebrate Cristina's mother's birthday. Marco and I drove two hours north into the Veneto region and had very pleasant conversation the whole time. The whole day was very italian intensive for me, especially the drive with Marco because we were alone in a car together with no music. We met up with Cristina (who had gone the day before) and the rest of her family, consisting of mom Paola, dad Alessandro, brother, and brother's wife and 3 year old daughter, Chiara. I successfully read one of Chiara's books, although it did help that I already knew the story of the ugly duckling.

We had one of the best lunches ever at a agriturismo place in Bassano. We lunched on typical food from the region which was all delicious. The appetizer was typical sausages from the Veneto, and the sausages of Veneto rank among my favorites(which also include the spicy calabrian sausage). I had a special type of pasta with ragu for my first course and rabbit for my second course. For our contorno we had polenta and other assorted vegetable dishes. We started desert with chocolate cake (tenerina) and finished with frutta sotto grappa (fruit soaked in grappa). Then came the coffee and the the only grappa I've ever had that didn't taste like gasoline. A word on grappa: Grappa is a vodka type drink distilled from the skins of grapes. Grappa was first brewed in Bassano and it takes it's name from the mountain that overlooks Bassano. The grappa was so smooth and quite tasty, much better than the 5 euro bottle I bought in Rome, which was undrinkable according to me.

Sometime during the meal Chiara asked me to go play with her outside on the swings, which was fun. While swinging I had a nice conversation with Chiara's mother(I am blanking on her name, mi dispiace molto). Sometimes I have trouble talking to new people, but this particular conversation went very smoothly. I put conversations like this on my list of victories in Italy.

In the afternoon Marco, Cristina and I went to a small town called Marostica and climbed up to the castle at the top of the town. They just don't make castles like that in the US. Later Cristina gave me a guided tour all over the city center of Bassano, where they were gearing up for a special festival for the Alpini, who are a military brigade native to this part of the country. Whenever I come back to Italy, Bassano will on my list of places to spend more time.