Where Art Thou Verona

 We traveled south toward Verona, along the Adige River surrounded by vineyards. This area, the Valpolicella DOC is known for its heavy red Amarone, Ripasso, and Classico wines. We had a tasting at Tenuta Santa Maria winery and learned the unique approach to making Amarone.  The grapes are picked and then taken to a barn where the grape clusters are laid out on bamboo shelves to dry in the air moved by large fans.  As the grapes begin to dry out, the juice thickens in flavor and is then pressed.  The grape skins go through a second pressing to make the Ripasso wine. Yum!

Lake Garda is seen in the distance

huge blocks of cut marble, ready to cut for countertops 

Ready for lunch

Tenuta St Maria di Gaetano Bertani winery

antique grape carrier

workers placing grapes to dry

Corvina grapes

bamboo shelves of grapes

Verona was more charming than I expected and we had a lot of fun there. Plenty to see, great food to eat, places to hike, and we stayed in a nice apartment.

bridge over Adige River to old town Verona

our apartment shared terrace

view from apartment

one of the Scaliger family tombs

 

one of the della Scallas

 

 Torre dei Lamberti

The group of 6 ornate Gothic tombs are from the Della Scalla family who ruled Verona and mainland Veneto (not Venice) from 1262 to 1387. They built a church - to themselves - and placed these ornate tombs outside. Many of the buildings in Verona seemed to have been built for their owners' posterity.

yet another Roman arena

lots of rules

love old sidecars

Car show in town. Fun to see antique Italian vehicles. Didnt think Fiats looks like Rolls Royce back in the day.

no idea, but pretty

Old Fiat

Castlevecchio built 1354 by della Scala family, now a museum

Peter and Paul

a St Catherine

one of the towers

detailed painted walls-like mosaic

castle bridge to park

nativity with dark skinned parents

save the castle!

the ramparts

Fregnano della Scala hid out in his castle

Like we saw in Venice, the government installed these locations throughout town where 'secrete' notes could be submitted into the lion's mouth that reported someone breaking the law. Considered secret, they still had to be signed.   

growly lion mouth

the staircase for Torre dei Lamberti

town center fountain

Erbe Piazza - main plaza in town

Sunset overlooking Verona and Adige River from hilltop castle.

awaiting sunset

checking out the bridges

end of day

goodnight!

we explored EATALY Verona

We ventured out to Eataly Verona to find some cheese and meat for our next picnic. What fun! The deli worker gave us 6 large samples of cheese, 3 of meats. We were not hungry for dinner after that.

Turk makes dinner-pasta sauce, noodles YUM

Gorgeous Riva del Garda

 Drove west from Ortesei toward the northern tip of Lake Garda, the largest lake of the northern Italy lakes. We drove through wine areas as the mountains became hills.  Along the way, we stopped at a tiny medieval town called Canale that was deserted until the 1960s when artists started moving in for inexpensive housing.  Today it has a few galleries and pubs mixed in with some homes created in renovated stone buildings.

wineries

   

medieval Canale

town of Canale

an apartment-drying corn

arches and plaques

interesting restroom

helping local economy

And finally, we get to Riva del Garda. We stayed at a family villa that rents out some of the rooms. Lovely grounds, but the weather changed and our time at Riva was the only rain for our whole trip. 

looking at villa from yard

pool too cold!

breakfast by Turk!

eggs, cheese, veggies, peach, yogurt

Riva from the lake - on our steamer paddleboat

windsailers everywhere....on a weekday!

our boat

town of Malcesine with castle - of course

great pizza chef!

the castle

view from castle wall

castle wedding

our boat on Garda

see the road cut into the side?

well dressed citizen of Riva

vegetarian dinner

our bathroom wall in apt

on road to Verona - looking for figs

After 2 nights, we headed to Verona to the southeast of Riva. Along the drive through farmland and marble quarries we stopped in Spiazzi to see the Santuario Madonna della Corona, a church built on a thin ledge of the mountainside of Mount Baldo 2000 ft above sea level. A church as been on this site since the 1500s. Getting to the church one must hike down (then up to leave) for almost an hour along a mountain path. 

church in Spiazzi

nestled in the mountain

see the trail down