The next stop in our travels was Valpolicella Valley, one of the many wine areas in Italy. This area in particular in known for Amorone, a wine made from grapes that are semi-dried before crushing them. There are other famous wines in the area as well and traditionally, the wines are made from Corvina Veronese, Rondinella, and Molinara varietals (none of which I had heard of before!). We were pleasantly surprised to find all of the wines we tried to be incredibly different from Chianti, what is probably the most known Italian wine in the US (of which neither of us are huge fans). As it turns out, we even had a few bottles from this region that would make our overall favorites lists, but I’ll get into those a little later.
While in the Valpolicella Valley we booked an Airbnb that turned out to be in a tiny stone town just outside Fumane, one of cities that holds a large number of vineyards in the area. This house couldn’t have been more precious. Genuinely old with stone walls, wood beams, and all of the wires and copper pipes exposed, as they were added on long after the house was built. In the kitchen a wood burning oven kept us warm and allowed for some pretty delicious meals. I’m thankful Kirk knows how to use such things because I would have been stumped without him! Our hostess lived across the street and was vibrant and friendly, offering great advice on wineries and sights in the area. It was such a lovely stay.
Our modern wood burning stove
After our time in the Valpolicella Valley we headed south and spent a single day in lovely Venice. I’ll share a little more about our time in wine country and then move into the great day we had in this city of waterways.
The Valpolicella Valley is a beautiful area. Charming cities, vibrant vineyards, majestic mountains. It’s beautiful, delicious, and easy enough to get around to be an excellent stop for all types of travelers. Below are a few photos from the surrounding area.
The view from the parking lot behind a restaurant where we ate fresh spaghetti with handmade noodles and farm fresh sauce.
Vineyard in town
Sights from around Fumane
Another view in town.
A storm over the vines
The double rainbow that came after the storm over the vines (the rainbow lasted well over an hour!)
The mountains behind the vines.
Below are some of our favorite wines form this region.
David Sterza’s Ripasso – I think this is my favorite wine we had all trip. It’s the only bottle we went back and bought a second bottle of for the road! It has a rich hints of fresh ripe red cherries. I loved it!
Tommasi – this place had the most welcoming hostesses. Though the wines wouldn’t make our favorites overall list, they were certainly good enough for us to hope to eventually order some at home. This vineyard also owns several other vineyards in other regions. We liked everything we tried here – even the Primitivo from one of the other regions.
Brunelli – we liked everything we had here, but their Amarones were off the charts! We liked them so much the we even carried a bottle all the way home! I liked the Classico, but Kirk’s favorite was the reserve below. I’ve said it before, but he generally prefers the stronger oak flavors.
Kirk LOVED this one.
One day while walking around town Kirk noticed a sign for a festival coming up that was going to be occurring near Verona during the one weekend we were in town. When we realized what type of festival it was, we were pumped! A truffle festival!! No, not truffles like chocolate truffles, but rather, truffle, like the fungus (lots of people call them mushrooms, and though truffles taste great with mushrooms, they aren’t one). If you’ve never had it, man, there’s nothing like it. It has a very distinct flavor and is often infused into oils and butters in order to cook with it. Truffles themselves are pretty expensive, but the oils infused with them are reasonably priced (in Italy, that is. At home they cost much more). If you ever get a chance, try truffle. It’s pretty amazing.
All that to say, with our love of truffles, we were unbelievably excited to learn of a festival revolving around this delicious food. The town in which it was occurring was about an hour from our home base in the region, but we headed in that direction for some tastiness. It did not disappoint!
The town in which the festival occurred.
We walked down the sidewalks above until we reached an open area with fun jumps, a few tables selling goods, and a huge white tent. We meandered amongst the tables before arriving at the tent. As we walked in, we felt as if we were at a tailgate, but with fancy food!
The tailgate like food tent
The festival menu. Those prices are all in Euros, which, while we were there, it was around $1.15 USD to 1 Euro, so those prices are pretty great!
Handmade truffle gnocchi with truffle polenta in the back. The polenta was good, the gnocchi was incredible!
Truffle risotto. Also good, but didn’t compare with those fresh gnocchi.
At the end of our time Valpolicella valley, we caught a train and headed down to a town right outside of Venice. We slept in an Airbnb and got up early the next morning and caught another train into Venice. Though we only had time to spend one day in this city, we found it to feel pretty magical.
Built on over 100 small islands, Venice is a city of waterways. You can take a car or train to the edge of the city, but once you are inside, boats and your feet are the only modes of transportation. If walking isn’t your thing, taxi boats can take you anywhere you need to go. Bridges curve over the canals all over the city, framed by charming buildings from days of old. Since the islands are so small, few modern buildings have made their way onto this very old real estate. The waters and waterways are beautiful blues and turquoises, filled with boats of all kinds – including the famous gondolas being pushed along with poles by men in striped shirts. Most buildings in the city back up to a canal where a garage door meets the water. This allows for easy boat storage and entry/exit of any boat owners in the building. It’s a place of beauty and is certainly a must see for any travelers out there looking for a unique experience.
A view from one of the first bridges you see upon exiting the train station.
A picture of the bridge from which that picture above this one was taken.
A well known site right across the waterway from the train station.
One of the many beautiful canals.
For lunch in the city we searched on trip advisor for something delicious and affordable. What we found was shockingly cheap and delicious – a sandwich and wine shop that sells simple delicacy sandwiches for 1 euro each and wine starting at 0.85 euros a glass. Most sandwiches only had two delicious ingredients, but my oh my, were we shocked at how delicious these ingredients were. Porchetta and spicy mustard, freshly sliced roast beef with caramelized onions, other meat and roasted veggies mixed with different types of fresh, pungent cheeses. As we tried each sandwich we were shocked at how high quality all of the toppings were. After standing in the long line for a short time, we ended up ordering 6 of the many varieties of sandwiches they offered before following the crowd to the stairs nearby to eat our treats.
Kirk in line at the sandwich shop
Me with four of our sandwiches and a glass of Prosecco, a popular wine in this region.
A closer view of the deliciousness.
Kirk, beginning the sampling of sandwiches with his glass of wine.
Overall, we spent about $8 on six sandwiches and two glasses of wine. Find this place if you are ever visiting there!
After eating, we spent the rest of the day exploring, below are pictures from the rest of our time in Venice!
Kirk, with some of the beautiful bridges and buildings.
Boats on the waterway
Everywhere you look appears as if it should be in a picture!
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A walking street
The more we walked the more we saw why cars aren’t allowed here! The original streets are tiny!
One of the original streets
A water taxi carrying people around.
An even tinier street! I was shocked at how small some of streets that google took us down were!
I loved all the colors here!
So charming!
Our first gondola sighting!
A closer view of one of the gondolas.
One of the main canals that is much larger than most of the waterways.
Us on a bridge 🙂
Another view of the main canal.
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A charming shop in the area that sold quills and wax seals.
A hotel that it seemed you can only reach by gondola.
Saint Mark’s in the main square.
A final picture before we hopped back on the train to our airbnb – I loved all the pinks and reds together from the laundry and buildings!
Though we walked nearly the whole length of the islands in our time there, our single day in Venice was still much too short! It’s a beautiful, charming, historical city with an untouched character about it in spite of the large tourism industry to which it is now home.
Overall, we loved our time in both Valpolicella and Venice. They are beautiful areas with tons to offer all types of travelers.
Next blog begins our time in Spain!
The Yonderers 