We rented a car in Venice and drove to the Veneto to a town called Sarcedo which is just outside Thiene. We arrived at our apartments in the Villa Bodo (pictured above and below) on a country road. The apartments were made from a converted farm house. Villa Bodo now contains an enoteca (wine bar/restaurant), a pool, and a series of apartments all designed by the architech who owns the place and has his studio on site. We were lucky - our apartment was on the first floor just outside of the pool. Ethan loves to swim.
Just outside the villa there is a 1,000 year old church. The oldest church in Sarcedo. It is also owned by the architect who owns the villa.
We met our upstairs neighbors Claudia and Wolf who are also architects. Their area of speciality is historical restoration. They were here with a group of craftsmen (stonemasons, blacksmiths, painters, etc...) from all over Europe who were studying at the institute that Wolf heads the La Fondazione Villa Fabris located in Thiene which provides specialized training to the trades in historical renovation. The foundation was having an open house weekend, so Claudia drove all of us to the institute and she and Wolf gave us a private tour of the institute. We were able to view all of the student work and see demonstrations by the blacksmith. Ethan made a friend and got to play in a bamboo maze and got to eat lots of watermelon. Here are some pictures of the institute.
These are the rooms displaying the student work -
We also took a trip to Bassano Del Grappa. A beautiful town on a river that William and I had visited 10 years ago on our honeymoon. Here are some pictures of the bridge that crosses the river in Bassano.
Here are some pictures of Marostica which has the remains of an impressive castle which is in two parts with part on top of the mountain and part on the bottom of the mountain connected by a wall that runs down the side of the mountain. The weekly market was going on while we were there. In this shot of the town center, you can see the castle wall coming down the mountain.
This is the lower part of the castle with the market in the foreground.
We also visited Asiago. This is where Asiago cheese comes from. This is a really beautiful town in the mountains.
All of these towns seem to have an impressive clock tower.
Ethan poses with Pinocchio.
William returns from the fruit and vegetable stand with ingredients for our dinner which also included asiago cheese.
After the 40 min. boat ride, we arrived at Lido Island where our hotel was located. We followed the instructions to get on the bus (again a big deal with all the luggage - the bus was jam packed). We got off at the stop that we thought was the stop for the hotel but could not find it. Now, we were pulling all this luggage down the street in the blistering hot sun looking for our hotel. We asked a few people about how to get to the hotel, but we had difficulty understanding and communicating in Italian. Finally we found a restaurant where the staff spoke enough English to get us to our hotel. It was only later we realized that we left a bag filled with books on the water bus. This involved going back to the vaparetto office and a lucky break - someone turned in the bag to the Vaparetto Office. At this point everyone was exhausted and tired. After lunch of pizza and some much needed wine, we went to Lido Beach for the afternoon and later picked up some food to make a picnic dinner on our patio. Here we are on the street with our luggage when we stopped at the restaurant which gave us directions to the hotel.
In the garden of our hotel Pensione Stella.
The square where we found a market to get food for our picnic dinner on the patio.
Near our hotel in the Lido, there was this beautiful bridge over on of the canals. It was a good spot for photos, so we took a few.
William takes a ride on Ethan's scooter.
We spent a bit of each day at the Lido Beach. Here are some pictures. Check out this paddle boat that we rented! Ethan slides .....
He is in the water!
We spent some time exploring some of the major sights of Venice ... Here is the Bridge of Sighs - the bridge connecting the Dodge's Palace to the Prison. The bridge is called this, because prisioners would "sigh" at their last sight of freedom as they cross the bridge.
We also visited Murano. This island is famous for its glass. There are no schools on the island of Murano. Glass is the craft for all families on the island and children are apprentice to their fathers in the art of glass making at a young age. We went to a glass factory and watched a glass making demonstration.
