Today I travel to the wine country known for producing the Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco DOCG. This area has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site for the unique wines made here. I’m lucky to find a free shuttle bus that takes me throughout the area, because it is very difficult to visit without a car.
Of course the bikers are out in full, another reason not to rent a car to drive in the area.
But even more disruptive are the sheep. I so much want to get out and get closer, but the shuttle bus turns around and takes another route.
We stop in many little towns, but the driver recommends Cison di Valmarino, which is designated one of the most beautiful towns in Italy. I have to agree. It is beautiful, and far from being abandoned, it is lively and artful, with placards throughout describing its history.
High on a hill about the town is the former Brandolini Castle, which is now the Hotel Castel Brando. The Brandolini family owned huge swathes of this area, their founders gaining nobility through mercenary activities. Now the Brandolini still live the good life, even better than their forbears.
The town square is spacious, bordered by a river.
Throughout the town, slogans from fascist times are still visible on buildings. This one encourages people to “Walk and build, and if necessary fight and win.” These words were spoken by Mussolini in a speech in Torino in 1932.
This one says “My will does not know obstacles.”
“Always ready to put on a backpack”. Mussolini’s words have been restored onto these buildings because the town wanted to record how these private houses looked in the twenty-year period of Fascism. The restoration has caused considerable controversy. It could be construed as pro-fascist, but restoring them seems preferable to erasing the past.
This woman Adele and her family also take the shuttle and invite me to coffee with them on the terrace of the Cafe Roma. She wants to practice her English, and I, Italian, so we have a bi-lingual conversation in the garden.
Without Adele’s invitation, I probably would not have found the Cafe Roma, which is full of interesting objects, including this chandelier made of Murano glass.
The town has a lovely setting, and I walk up to the Via dell’Acqua, the water trail.
The walk starts out on a slow climb. Someone has posted these signs made of tree trunk slices that speak of Italy’s constitution and the human rights granted its citizens. Perhaps a counter-act to the fascist sayings.
I find the house that could be mine. Such a lovely town. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to live here (part-time)! If only I were a Brandolini.
The water walk promises lots of surprises, but I turn back when it becomes steep as it heads into the hills. I have much more to explore in the town.
On the square, I find a workshop open to the public. This artist is working in fine-point lithography. It looks very to be a very demanding process.
And also messy. I admire the artists who have the patience and the ability to work in this technique. We spend some time talking, and they invite me to a hands-on workshop, but it starts at 5pm, and I’m on the shuttle’s schedule. Anyway, it’s not for me. I don’t have the patience nor the ability to keep the ink where it’s supposed to be.
I return to the site of the wine festival, held in an area next to a 17th century building that belonged to the Brandolini family. There lived the sharecroppers who tended the Brandolini’s vines and the mulberry trees that produced leaves for silkworms.
It’s a pleasant setting beneath the towering mountains. During World War I, the Austrians had conscribed locals and used prisoners to build a road called the Road of 100 Days that connected this part of the country to the other side so the Austrians could bring supplies down to the Piave River.
The choice of wines is extensive. The Brut cost one Euro more, but a glass goes for 4 Euro. I tell the waitress I’d like an Extra Brut, and she selects the Caneva da Nani for me. That along with a talieri, a plate of cheese, salame, and bread, serves as my lunch.
Had I known, I would have reserved the special polenta plate, with chicken, beef and rabbit, roasted by these chefs, but they are sold out.
After lunch I walk through the museum of bygone tools. This very large item, about five feet in diameter, was used to carry hay down from the mountain to store for the winter feeding of the animals. A tribute to lashing and twining.
The countryside is green with vineyards.
Back in Conegliano, I do a little sightseeing, visiting a museum that has an exhibition called Tikkum Olam Repairing the World, by Tobia Ravà, an artist working in Venice. He uses numbers and letters in his art, in a system called gematria, in which letters are assigned numbers and phrases are assigned numbers. It’s used in Kabbalah, a Jewish mystical tradition, to interpret the Bible and gather insights. I wonder what it all means.
I then visit the Sala di Battuti, a room created by the Brotherhood of the Battuti (or Beaten) with frescoes from the 14th century.
Most interesting to me are the tapestries that the Brothers purchased to adorn the walls of their meeting place. The colors vary in natural shades of blues and browns.
A full day, I look at the step count and see it at 14,952 steps today. Could be a record! I’m home to rest.