December 26 - Christmas in Vicenza
by Marc Gunn

Now it was time to head for the mountains. I LOVE mountains. I got back in Austin, looked around and said, "Dang, I can see for miles!" The Veneto is located in the Po River Valley. Mountains are on all sides.

Far to the South and East, the Apennines. To the North are the Dolomites, a part of the Western Alps. Immense mountains that change color as the day goes on. Then, there's the hills which are so big by Austin standards, that they may as well be mountains.

So the day after Christmas, we headed off to Asolo. I remember going to Asolo, I think it was the first time I went to Italy in 1985 or so. We went to an antique market. I remember seeing incredible illuminations ripped out of pages of old tomes and sold for exoribant prices. I remember the view. Wow! Beautiful. The town was old, old. And the magic was there!

We stopped on the way and bought some lunch at one of the few open stores. I got some Edamer which had that delicious creamy taste that I love in Asiago cheese. I also got some prosciutto and snacked all the way out to Asolo.

This time, I went with my camera and took a few cool pictures of the countryside, the streets, and a few of the people. There was no market, and it was an Italian holiday so it was pretty dead. But it was delight to see nonetheless.

Afterwards, we drove through the Dolomites past Marostica where you can find one of the oldest live chess matches held every couple years there and Bolzano where I've got to return as I later learned that's near where mom, Tiziano and I went climbing high into the mountains to an abandoned military fort with grazing cattle and wonderful fog.

To Vicenza

We then drove through the campagna back to Vicenza. There I labored through the streets to the piazza. I figured out how to use the cool night function of my digital camera and was fortunate enough to catch a few cool pictures there. Unfortunately, many came out blurry, like my shots of Il Teatro Olimpico, the oldest indoor theatre in Europe. But they somewhat capture the mood nonetheless.

The piazza was alive with people. Everyone was out walking around. I still have no clue what they were doing out there, but to the best of my knowledge, they just wanted to socialize.

After walking through the piazza, we stopped at a bar to catch a breath and take drink. Then around the corner, we made our way back. I was exhausted, so we stopped in front of a church that was holdin a Presipio inside. I took some pictures and tried out some other features on my camera.

Christmas in Italy | Christmas in Italy Air Travel to Frankfurt | Train Travel to Italy | Christmas Eve in Italy | Christmas Day in Italy | La Festa di San Stefano | Vicenza Italy | Padua Italy and Italian Countryside | Trip to Venice Rained Out | Camisano Open Air Market | Veneto Antique Market | Links | Venice Italy, My Home Away From Home |

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