Sunday night in Italy

Sunday, a day of rest. Today is day 7 of my 8 day Villas Tour and rest is exactly what I have done. There were lots of choices of 30-40km cycle rides around the area, most of them up hill for a good part of the day. There was also the options of train trips to Vicenza or back to Venice, but I opted instead to have a lazy day, catching up on washing, reading, better planning my day tomorrow and the free bits after I get dropped at the train station in Vicenza at 9.45 Tuesday morning. I then have until the end of the week to make my own way to where I start the next tour in Montepulciano.
This place, Agristurismo L'Albara has been raved about by previous Headwater guests, who talk about the wonderful hospitality of this great family. Well, maybe it's me, or maybe it's because I'm on my own I am not really sure, but I have found the place particularly unfriendly. Like I said yesterday I waited in the foyer for quite some time when I arrived before I was shown to my room. My suitcase was just sitting where the Headwater rep had left it in the foyer, where in the other two hotels it was nicely waiting for me up in my room. I was shown to my room and the lady went out and shut the door behind her without a word and I was not shown around the place or shown to the dining room or anything.
And then this morning I went down for breakfast, there wasn't a soul about. I helped myself to the traditional bread and jam and coffee and went outside to eat it, there were no places set at the tables in the dining room so it didn't look as if you were expected to eat in there. There were no other guests around, so not sure where all the people from last night were. Most of them were still in the dining room when I left last night and that was after 11pm. There certainly had been no noise at all this morning so I don't know when they all had breakfast. I was a bit later coming down, thinking that I would meet up with somebody, but no staff, no guests – just a deserted dining room with the food on the table. It reminded me a bit of the place that Rodney and I stayed at in Kaikoura – although this one is much cleaner, tidier and upmarket – but that place was deserted as well and we just helped ourselves to breakfast and let ourselves out and went on our way!! Quite strange really.
So I sat doing my blog outside after I finished my breakfast and then talked to Rowan and Roxy on Skype which was great.
I then went for a bit of a walk to the village, and as it was very hot, opted to come back and blob out. Again I saw absolutely no-one and I came back up to my room which is lovely and cool and just relaxed for the day. Because I can connect to the internet here, I have researched some hotels and stuff in Vicenza and Milano and so am feeling a bit better about heading off on my own next week. I have also checked out the Headwater website and blog to see what other travellers have to say, and to see if there is anyone out there doing it solo, but it would appear not.
The thing that worries me is that I could have had a heart attack from all that food last night and been lying here in my room and the staff would have absolutely no idea where I am. Likewise, no-one knew when I went for my walk where I was going so if I had been hit by a bus (highly unlikely on the village road , but you know what I mean) then nobody would know about it until maybe dinner time tonight when I don't go downstairs for dinner, or perhaps even when Sarah comes to collect my bag tomorrow morning.
I think the problem is that I am 'solo' so they don't quite know what to make of me. Although at Belvedere and the hotel at Teolo, this was not a problem and every time I moved from my room there was somebody waiting at the bottom of the stairs to see what I wanted and to make sure that I had all the information that I needed and they made sure that I knew how to catch a bus, had a map to get to where I wanted to go to and knew how much it was going to cost etc etc. At the hotel Belvedere, Alice had very good English skills, but on the second day she was away all day and her mother, with the help of her dictionary and my phrasebook, we managed to communicate and at Teolo, Luca had minimal English skills but we managed fine And I wasn't the only guest they had. It is only here in a family environment that I am having problems.
But as I say, maybe it is me, maybe I should have gone looking, made myself more at home and been more outgoing, but I am so not wanting to do the wrong thing and so hold back a bit and wait for some guidance. And there were no notes in the handbook about how to do things here, just rave comments about how wonderfully hospitable the family is.
However, my body was needing the rest, of that I am certain. Tomorrow is 41km (if I take the longer route) and I will have to time it a bit better so that I get to places when they are open. Because I have had the time today I have really studied the itinerary. There is a shady picnic area at a monastery in San Pancrazio which is at about the half way mark, but it isn't open until 3pm. The restaurant that is recommended in the notes for lunch is closed on a Monday (and of course tomorrow is Monday) as is the one at the next village, so it will be a long long picnic at the monastery by the look of it. And finally there is a vineyard with tasting on the route. There have been several others I could have visited on my rest days, but drinking alone isn't much fun and then there is always the problem of riding back to base. Also because of my limited luggage space it is a bit too soon to start buying bottles of wine to bring home. I will do that when I get to Montepulciano. Not to say that the wine hasn't been worth bringing home, it certainly has.
So I guess not really much else to report on today until I tell you all about tonights dinner. I had an email from Colleen in Australia and she tells me she's putting on weight just reading about the food, and Kath in Wellington tells me her mouth is watering. I sure hope I can reproduce some of these fabulous dishes when I get home. In particular the pasta – it has been so simple but so tasty and nothing like we get in Italian restaurants at home. I was talking to Rodney the other morning and telling him that we thought the food at Volare was great - well the real stuff has been just heaps and heaps better. I guess it is because it is all so fresh – the olive oil is produced on each of the estates that I have stayed on, and the wine is produced right here in the region as well. And the vegetables and fruit are all freshly picked and apparently the menus change in accordance with what is freshly available at the time. And of course I have come at the best time, cherries, peaches apricots, strawberries, peas, all just being picked right now.
At Teolo Luca told me that the grapes for the wines are provided by a number of growers and the wine is then produced by the region. I wonder if it is the same for other produce because there seem to be lots of small plots of (it looks to me like corn plants ) maize?? which is used for making the polenta so I wonder if each family make their own flour or does it all go to a co-op type place for producing?? I must try to remember to ask Sarah when she picks us up on Tuesday morning.
There are fields of peas, and a bit further down the road there is a field of potatoes, and then maybe a vineyard, then a field of maize. But in the villages, each house has a fairly substantial vegetable garden with tomatoes, peas, a green plant (maybe some sort of spinach) zuchinni, lettuce and beans. They are all so tidy, not a weed in sight, but I haven't seen anyone tending the plants at all. I have seen farmers watering their crops – tractors backed up to the canals or creeks that run alongside the road with pumps pumping the water out, feeding crop sprayers around the fields. I have been caught on three occasions with having to cycle through this water as it was being sprayed. ( it looks pretty yuck in the canals or streams as most of them are stagnant and it was only yesterday that I passed a creek that was actually clean and clear and flowing)
It is now 10.02pm and I have just come upstairs from dinner. I am the only guest tonight and the restaurant is closed to casual diners on a Sunday. So I was sat at one end of the table on my own, while some of the family sat at the other end and the rest at the table behind me. I felt a bit like a leper, however the food was good and the wine was good so I just enjoyed it and enjoyed listening to the jovial chatter between the family members.
Tonights meal was: Pasta – fettucine with peas which I sprinkled with fresh parmesan; then there was roast guinea fowl, roast potatoes and the traditional mixed salad. Now that confirms that last nights dinner was not guinea fowl like the others were eating but was in fact some meat cooked with cherries and olives. The young lad had told me goat meat but he wasn't sure about the right words to use and I thought he was mixed up because there was a written menu on the table and it said guinea fowl, but my dish was certainly much different to tonights so perhaps it was goat. The guinea fowl was beautiful, quite a dark meat but very very tender and moist whereas last nights meat was quite tough.
I was offered the choice of fruit, cheese or cake for dessert so I went for the cheese and was brought three cheeses. The first one was hard and dry with quite a strong taste, the second one softer and lighter and full of holes and tasty, while the third one was very soft and very mild and a very light colour and was a mixture of cows and sheeps milk. Now that reminds me, I have not seen any animals in my travels, well farm animals that is. I have seen donkeys and dogs and cats but certainly no cows, goats or sheep. Wonder where they keep them.
Tonight I tried my first espresso and was joined for coffee by one of the older men, who has travelled to America and China. He sells welding equipment – electrodes, and thankfully having had two welding husbands I knew what he was talking about. He was very impressed that I knew.
He comes from Abruzzo (on the coast but quite near L'aquila where the earthquake was) but is happier here in the Veneto region because of the relaxed lifestyle and the food. Most people in this area grow there own vegetables (which I had already established) which he likes very much. The olive oil on the table is produced here at the farm and I asked if I was able to buy some to take home. It is so nice, the nicest I have tried so far on my travels. we talked about the differences between the regions in Italy and he was interested to here about my forthcoming trip in Tuscany. The wine here in this region is Cabernet, Merlot and Savignon and he said I will find much different wines in Tuscany. We also talked about the economic situation in Europe and the problem with illegal immigrants, in particular the black people. I told him the story of my experience with the black man in Este and he laughed and confirmed that he would have thought I was a local and was wanting to find a wife so he could stay. He talked about his family (two sons and 5 nephews – but I think, or at least am pretty sure that he meant grandchildren) and he asked lots of questions about New Zealand and the kiwifruit industry and we talked about the Italians in Turangi. Oh and just one more piece of useful/useless information – the population of Italy is 60 million and the altitude of the mountains in Abruzzo is 3000 metres.
All that conversation and I don't even know what his name is. But Roxy – I can't see a Ferari in the drive and he didn't sound rich (wouldn't be if he sells welding gear) and it wouldn't appear that he owns a villa, so sorry kid, close but not close enough. But all-in-all a pleasant end to my stay here. I wonder where they were all hiding today when I ventured out.
So now it is time to pack up my panniers ready for my trip tomorrow. The last day of this part of the holiday. The actual hours appears to go slowly, but at the same time the days are going by very fast.
Buona notte.