Our Italy adventures began in Venice! We landed as the sun was setting and took a taxi to our home in Italy in Conegliano (pronounced kone-ya-no). Our flat was wonderful and we woke up to a gorgeous view from the fifth story. Glorious, right? We stayed in a few days to get groceries, do laundry, and discover the town.
Our first outing was to discover more of Venice! We took the train and began by experiencing a delicious Aperol Spritz in it’s origin city! We then wandered the city, across the Rialto bridge, through tiny streets, and to Piazza San Marco.
We toured the glorious Basilica Cattedrale Patriarcale di San Marco on the eastern end of Saint Mark’s Square. The church is covered in gold-ground mosaics and glitters in the afternoon light.
Back in Congeliano, we enjoyed the market, our lovely kitchen, and the Italian cookbook we found there. We made pizza and Seville orange cake (delicious!). We also experienced an amazing summer storm (with spectacular thunder and lightening) that made the calm Fiume Monticano behind our flat into a raging river of death! We discovered the Castello di Conegliano and continued to enjoy our view.
We decided that it was time to head north toward the mountains and adventured to Ponte nelle Alpi. We didn’t realize that the storm had washed out part of the train tracks via mudslide and 40 minute journey took three hours to get us there via train and bus. When we finally arrived, we very much enjoyed our hike to Chiesa di Sant’Andrea! Our return was a bigger adventure… We waited with others at the train station until the sun almost set for the bus to take us to Vittorio Veneto and were able to catch the last bus to Conegliano!
Our next day trip via train was west to Verona, the city of Juliet and and Roman antiquities. We started the day at the Castelvecchio Museum filled with art, ancient weapons, and all within a restored palace. From there, we enjoyed the Ponte di Castelvecchio (or Scaliger Bridge). A must-see in Verona for us was the Casa di Giulietta in the movie Letters to Juliet. We went into the museum and even onto the balcony (awww…). From there, we visited the beautiful Basilica di Santa Anastasia. Our final stop was the Arena di Verona, a Roman amphitheater (older than Rome’s Colosseum built in 30 AD) still used for concerts and opera!
We decided our next outing would be closer to home. We headed the short train ride to Vittorio Veneto and the Scalinata di Santa Augusta. It was beautiful! We enjoyed the small chapels up the hill, the church, and another glorious view!
I love architecture and enjoy visiting historic palaces and mansions especially with original interiors and gardens. So we headed along the coast near Trieste! Our next destination was the beautiful Castello di Miramare.
One of our bucket list items for Italy was to hike a via ferrata. We mostly wanted to hike (versus climb) so we headed up into the Dolomites to hike around and through the saddle of Monte Pelmo. We hiked a loop starting at the Rifugio Passo Staulanza up through the saddle, around to the Rifugio Venezia, and looped back! It was a great hike for us, but caution that this is not a beginner hike (we passed a family of four who we saw again at the Rifugio Venezia with very bloody legs…). There are big areas of scree which make hiking at the right tempo and foot placement important. It was glorious and hard. And we found our via ferrata!
We decided to try out an adventure closer to home and took the train to Sacile. It was a cute town where the river creates a small island that’s a central location. We enjoyed our walk around town, over the Livenza river via bridges, and our beer and chicken sandwich at the BEFED Brew Pub!
We enjoyed our final spritzs (one Aperol, one Hugo) at the Conegliano Castle. We did a little shopping and I found a cute market dress at the weekly market (and a new belt)! We also continued to enjoy our little gelato shop, Dolce Capriccio Conegliano. Italy also had the best coffee, it was only 1.70 euro for a cappuccino and one of our favorites was at Dolce Caffè (with a cute patio along the river) and we also enjoyed Pasticceria Alpago and Fuoriporta.
Our time in Italy wrapped up in the same place it started… Venice! And this time, we stored our luggage while we wandered the city. It was delightful to walk down streets, alleys, and over bridges. I was delighted to find an “original” bridge without hand rails as there are only a few left in the city. We also discovered St. Mark’s square flooded as it was high-tide, and with climate change, the flooding is much more frequent. It did create, however, very fun people watching. Vendors sold a bunch of booties that go over your shoes so you don’t get wet, some just walked through with shoes on, and a number of people took off their shoes and waded through. Guess which one we did?!? It was a delight to watch the children play and splash to their heart’s content. Some couples took a table and drank a cafe/wine/spritz, while others took a ton of photos. It was a delight!
Thanks for joining us! To celebrate, here are some Venetian videos!!