Day 1: Arriving in Italy (September 9)

As Julia, Rachel, and I prepared to meet in Italy, we got so much pleasure from rereading the blog I had kept 10 years earlier during the summer of 2012 that I decided to return to the habit. Memories are one thing, but having actual stories to capture those memories are something I know I will cherish, and I now know the girls will too.

This adventure came to be because of the serendipity of a couple of factors: Rachel discovered that the human chess game in Marostica that only happens one weekend every other year was scheduled for September 9-10, 2022 -- while she was studying in Budapest. I was wanting to extend the 4-day Scotland trip planned for the following weekend with my mom and siblings to celebrate my mom’s 80th birthday, and Julia was excited (then hesitant, then excited again) to spend a week playing (and working a little) in Italy with us. The only bummer was that Jim had just had hip replacement surgery on August 24th so couldn’t come along. (I did consider the poor timing of leaving Jim post-surgery but was encouraged to go by his doctors; the unexpected heart issue following surgery made the trip seem iffy, but by the time I left, he was fine and to his credit, he doesn’t ever begrudge us things.) I made a pot of soup for him and headed to Newark where I met Julia in the airport for our direct flight to Venice. I had about a three-hour layover which is how early Julia prefers to be for flights so we were able to hang out in the airport, have dinner, and get some work done before boarding.

We initially didn’t have window seats but thankfully I checked seats the day before our flight and moved us each to a window on the opposite sides of the plane, and both with an empty seat next to us! Thanks to Zzzzz’s (NyQuil without the cold and flu part) we both got a great night’s sleep. We rented a car and were happy to see it was a little Fiat 500 (like the one Mama Laura and I had driven 10 years earlier) and didn’t realize it was a manual transmission until we put the key in the car and looked down. I was pretty sure I had rented an automatic but headed out with this one hoping we weren’t going to be in too many hilly places. I was happy once again that we had taught our girls this skill so they too could handle this issue, no problem.

We headed straight for Treviso. Julia and I both had work to do that day and we figured we would find a place to do that near our hotel. We parked our car on the outskirts of the walled city and walked our bags through the streets to the Plaza Signori in the heart of town. It was too early to check in so we sat in the square across from our hotel—a restaurant right next to Da Pino we had never been to. The kitchen wasn’t open yet so we ordered a little toast sandwich (all they could make at that time) and sat and enjoyed people-watching and the free wifi. There was a huge downpour which we rode out under the awnings. We then decided to walk from there to the apartment we used to live in. As we were we saw someone who looked exactly like our landlord looked 10 years earlier, but thought it couldn’t have been him.

We were able to find the place no problem and both our gelato store (with even more accolades for the owner Stefano) and the little 5 o’clock pizza place across the road were still there. It wasn’t the same without Rachel but it was around the right time of day and we weren’t sure we’d be back so Julia and I split a slice. It wasn’t great, but the gelato was!

We walked to our little grocery store and got a box of Fitness cereal for old times sake and returned to the gelato shop to get a mixed fruit granita. We were sad to learn that it did actually have sugar in it — something we were told it did not 10 years ago. But, that makes a lot more sense -- it's really good!

Julia and I made our way back to our hotel to do a little work and watch the sunset from our deck before heading back out to the restaurant by the fish market that we used to love. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a reservation and the outdoor seating was full but we did get a table inside (next to a window through which a drunk man had a lot to say to us but we don’t know exactly what). We ordered the branzino of course!

We then walked back to our hotel taking detours to find the spot where I was sure I had found my favorite gelato flavor: chioco coco. I didn’t find that but Julia and I did get another gelato to share before heading back to the hotel to sleep as Rachel boarded her overnight bus from Budapest to Venice.

Day 2: Rachel arrives / Live Chess Match in Marostica (September 10)

I (very) briefly considered driving to Venice to pick Rachel up from her bus stop but figured it was just as easy for her to hop on the train and come up to Treviso. That turned out to be a good thing because Julia and I slept in until after 9 and by the time Rachel was arriving it was nearly time for us to check out of our hotel. We lugged our bags back through town and met Rachel where we had parked the car. We walked from there directly to our apartment and this time we stumbled upon the man we had seen the day before who looked like Geurino parking his car in the garage under our apartment building — it was him looking just as he had 10 years earlier! It took him a moment (the girls have changed a lot in 10 years) but he recognized my name and it all came back to him.

Yes, it was as awkward as it looks

Because we were there, Rachel wanted to try the 5 o’clock pizza — not the right time of day, but it turns out it was better a little fresher earlier in the day! We then walked through the market towards the main square and had a drink in the place where I remember getting fresh orange juice on one of our first days in town.

Then it was time for the meal we had been waiting for — lunch at Da Pino — and it did not disappoint. Somehow that pizza is just perfect. We walked back to Dassie for some gelato (trying three flavors, I think mine won?) and took pictures at the gate to the city before walking back to the car to head toward the reason for our visit.

We found a hotel in Bassano del Grappa which is about 10 minutes from Marostica but rather than spend much time there after checking in, we decided to head to Marostica a couple of hours early to walk around. We arrived under beautiful blue skies and found the special cherry candies Rachel remembered and saw the performers rehearsing the flag-throwing portion of the shows.

We sat at a sidewalk cafe and ordered a cheese plate (not enough for dinner) but it was fun to sit and watch the people walk by, many of whom were clearly performers based on what they were wearing; it seemed the entire town was in the performance in some way.

The chess match tells the story from the 1400s in which two men were vying for the hand of the princess and the king decided that he would give his eldest daughter to the winner of a chess match--and, that the loser would get to marry the younger sister!

The performance itself didn’t start until 9 pm and we needed more food. We found a place for a quick slice of pizza and headed to our seats. By the time we had finalized our plans to come to Italy, the show was nearly sold out so we were only able to find three single seats, luckily in the same section. We also had been prepared for it to rain during our trip, but on that particular day, there was no actual rain in the forecast. But, not too far into the show, just as the king and his entire processional had made their grand entrance into the courtyard, it started to rain.

The king and processional exited with similar fanfare as they had entered, and moments later, they entered again with the entire processional. Not speaking Italian, we found it hard to follow exactly what was happening, but when a few minutes later it started raining much harder the processional proceeded out again and an announcement came over the loudspeaker telling people to exit.

We crouched under the bleachers to escape the rain and found out from a woman who speaks three languages that they couldn’t have the costumes in the rain because the velvet was too fragile. I was surprised someone who doesn’t speak English as a first language knew the word velvet; she was surprised that someone would travel to Marostica from America for this production. Her husband suggested our next trip should be to see the Passion Play in Oberammergau, Germany which happens only every 10 years…I’m definitely game.

Within about half an hour we were able to return to our (very wet) seats and the royal family processed out again. The chess match was a short part of the overall production but we were particularly impressed with the young kids (maybe 5 or 6 years old) whose job it was to hold the queen’s train up while she moved from square to square. They were out there a LONG time overall and never lost focus. It was a late night and we didn’t understand much of it but it was delightful to be there. In rereading the old blog, I realized that it was Rachel who had made the declaration that returning to Marostica for the human chess game was on her bucket list — I am so happy Julia and I could return with her for this full circle moment.

Day 3: Bassona del Grappo and Venice (aka the Search for Chioco Coco) (September 11)

We didn’t have much of a plan for this day; we only knew that we had to Rachel back to Venice by 10 pm to take the overnight bus back to Budapest. We spent the morning walking through Bassano del Grappo and recreating the photo shoot we had done 10 years prior on the bridge in town. My memory of the bridge (which might be true because it was likely a weekday) was that we were the only people on the bridge, but this time--on a Sunday in September--it was packed! I still managed to take pictures that make it look like we were alone.

Rachel really wanted to get some good pasta before heading back to Budapest and we were looking to take a nice walk, so we decided to stop for lunch at a nice-looking restaurant right along the path by the river. The setting was perfect, but, the food was absolutely terrible, which was sad and surprising. And, I think Julia felt a little responsible for choosing the restaurant, which of course she had no reason to.

In planning this trip, I had thought we’d skip Venice altogether but in thinking it through I decided that might be a mistake. The girls were young the last time we were in Venice so their memories might not be as strong, and really who knows how much longer people will be able to visit Venice given the rising waters. So, Rachel moved her bus ticket to leave directly from the island rather than the mainland (which bought her an extra half hour) and we set out to get there.

The girls were really focused on helping me find the ciocco coco flavor gelato I so loved, and we had figured out at some point the name of the store that used to have it: Venchi. We also knew from the blog that the first place I had it was in Vicenza, which was (only sort of) on our way. We parked the car on the other side of the Giardini Salvi and raced across it remembering the dance troupe rehearsal we'd stumbled upon when we had been there before. We knew exactly where we’d find Venchi, but they didn’t have my flavor. We didn't let that stop us from each getting a cone before racing back to our car (through a flea market) to continue onto Venice.

Rachel realized in the car that she didn’t have a phone charger and I didn’t want her on an overnight bus without one — so we put Julia in charge of finding us a place to get yummy pasta and a phone charger in Venice. (I’m going to skip the part about how searching for those things in a moving car put her in a little bit of a snit — but she shook it off by the time we were crossing into Venice itself.). We parked the car near where Rachel would catch the bus and told the guy at the ticket window that we had under two hours to spend in Venice total. He did not think it was enough time to do anything but we got on the people mover to the train station, found a USB cord for Rachel and hightailed it through the winding narrow streets of Venice until we got to a takeaway pasta place.

It was really nondescript and we had to eat standing in the window of the shop (eating on the streets in Venice is illegal) but it was delicious and left just enough time for us to race back through the streets, stopping first at another Venchi to see if maybe they’d have ciocco coco and getting three more cones anyway when they didn’t. We were three gals in Italy for two days and we had 12 cones between us!

As we were moving quickly through the streets, Julia turned to me and said “You were right” meaning that we were in fact able to fit in a fun little jaunt through Venice to which a shopkeeper standing outside quipped, “Finally, she admits it” … so I didn’t have to. :-)

When we got to the boat ferry next to the Rialto Bridge, I thought it would be quickest and most Venice-like to take the water shuttle back to the car park. So, I bought tickets, but when we went to board we were told that we couldn’t board without masks. I had SO many masks with me because I was still masking much of the time, but I left them in the car because very few people masked anywhere in Italy and I didn’t think it was important to have them with me in Venice because we'd be entirely outdoors. The boatman initially told me he didn’t have any masks so Rachel searched through her bag and found one KN95 which she gave to Julia and one EYE mask from her international flight to Budapest, which she put on over her mouth. The guy gave me a little look of pity and said that he in fact did have some masks and led me over to another spot and handed me a pack of masks, and I very respectfully just took the one we needed for me. We spent the next 45 minutes on the boat with Rachel incredulous that I hadn’t just taken two masks so she didn’t need to wear the eye mask the whole way! It was very funny! It hadn’t even occurred to me to take two, and it made it so much funnier (for me and Julia) that I hadn’t.

We got back to the car in time to leave Rachel at the bus — too short but so happy to have made this adventure happen! Julia and I still had 1.5 hours to drive back to Bassano del Grappo for the night, but it was a great day!

Day 4: The Tyrol Region -- Getting to Lana (September 12)

With Rachel back in Budapest, Julia and I had three days alone and decided to spend it in Northern Italy - the Tyrol region in the Dolomites -- on the recommendation of Roger V (Jim's friend from Caltech) and his wife. They suggested a hotel (1477 RH) in the small town of Lana, which sits between the much larger city of Balzano and the smaller town of Merano. Julia was working some days but took this Monday totally off work so that we could explore the Dolomites. After we took a nice walk along the river in Bassona del Grappa, we decided to drive first to Balzano. Julia guided us to an underground parking lot off a main road in the middle of town, so, we were quite surprised to exit the lot right in the pedestrian plaza in the city center. We were also surprised by the heavy German influence of the area — though still in Italy, signs and menus were in both German and Italian. Though we speak neither, we suddenly felt like we were sorta fluent in Italian because it was so much easier to make out than the German.

We found a cute little restaurant on one of the pedestrian streets off of the main square. Our waiter spoke German, Italian, and English, and we were so happy he didn’t immediately assume to start with us in English. We learned like many in the region he had one Italian parent and one German; if he hadn’t been so busy covering all the tables himself we would have really wanted to get more information from him.

We checked out the cool looking church that was preparing for a funeral later in the day and got some gelato, because when in Italy, but then rather than spending more time in the “big city” of Balzano (it is the largest in the region but still pretty small) we headed to our hotel in Lana.

Our GPS guided us to a VERY fancy place (which might have been understandable since it was recommended by Roger) but I had been expecting something much more arty and rustic. Turns out we were in the wrong place; we had reserved at their sister hotel in town. When we got there it was exactly what I expected!

We got checked in to the hotel and asked about options for hiking so we were told to take a gondola up to the top of the mountain and walk there — which was an option that on the surface didn’t appeal to either of us, given Julia’s fear of heights and my tendency towards altitude sickness, but we decided to brave it. We were the only two people in the gondola car on the way up. At the top, we had the option of going up further on a chair lift or hiking a loop that would take us up and around on foot. We chose the “peaceful and serene” walk that would take us up to the top of the chair lift which we could then take down.

So, we headed out along path #1 in search of our turn onto path #34a following this drawing. And, path 34a never came — we walked through an open field on such an incline that it gave us both a little vertigo and came to a fence that we assumed meant we could go no further. So, we thought maybe the steep driveway up to the house on the hill was somehow path 34a, and it wasn’t but while we were looking around we saw some hikers coming the other way who, rather than seeing the fence as a deterrent, simply opened it and walked through. It was probably just there to keep out cows or something. So, we went through the gate and kept on. After 2 miles and no 34a, we decided we must have passed it and turned around a little indignant about the poor signage.

We walked all the way back to where we started and decided to go up the ski lift since we were running out of time until the last gondola down. Unfortunately, the ski lift was single rider and turned out to be painfully slow and cold. We only went out to the lookout point (which was great) and decided it would be better to walk down than to get back on that ski lift because it had looked so easy on the way up. But, it was actually quite steep and we would have had a really lovely view on the ski lift. We totally made the wrong choice on that one! Julia discovered what a cowbell really is. It wasn’t until we got down to the bottom where the gondola dropped us off that we realized that if we had just unfolded the map Julia was carrying in her hand, we had a full, explicit map with us all along! We had been almost to 34a when we gave up and the signage in these mountains is really top-notch, very German feeling in its accuracy. Total user error!

Everywhere we walked in town there were apple trees. Turns out South Tyrol is the largest single apple growing region in Europe. Apparently, every second apple in Italy and every tenth apple in Europe is grown here!

We decided to go to Moreno for dinner, which should have only been about 10 minutes up the road, but Google took us the wackiest way up. By the time we got turned around, we followed Google to the restaurant and ended up driving into what I was sure was a pedestrian-only zone but what Julia kept assuring me was totally fine.**

Finally, we essentially ended up in the main square next to the town’s church and I convinced Julia that regardless of who was right, it was really stressing me out so we needed to backtrack. She agreed (that I was stressed) and found us a parking lot. We walked to a restaurant for pizza, but the line was too long. So, we ended up choosing a German place where we ordered pizza, pasta, and apple strudel. It is a great combination for us — Italian food with German desserts! The drive back to the hotel was much quicker without any mistakes.

**Update: while together in Budapest in November 2022, I received official notice from the City of Moreno that I was being fined for driving in a pedestrian zone!