R&R Day 15, Pre Alps and Wine Tour

This final day of the vacation was spent on a driving tour of local wineries and the pre-alps. The tour company met our entire group down in Venice and we loaded into a nice VW minivan and drove out towards the Alps.

The first stop was the town of Marostica, still in the Vicenza area of Italy. This town has very classic Italian design, with the heart of the town protected by a high wall/fortress. The other famous feature of this town is the fact that the town square is laid out like a huge chess board. Every year they put on a human chess match, with knights in full armor and horses, etc. This event is huge, tickets for this year’s was already sold out, but the tourism board was selling tickets for 2012.

This town was so picturesque, with the perfect Italian square. The coffee shops, the scooters (and ATVs) puttering by, and the rich tolling of church bells.

The front entrance to the town had the full castle-like towers, stone structures that have been there for centuries.

Wenonah standing out on the chess board.

The statue of St Mark in the square, which is the patron saint of many towns in Italy.

A memorial to all those in the town that had died in the service of their country. Even though they were an enemy at one point, you still have to respect the memorial and the fallen.

One of the side entrances to the walled portion of the city; I really don’t think my Dodge Ram 3500 would be a good vehicle to own in this town.

The main church within the town, on the slopes of the hill. Everything in the area was made from marble and granite. The church was preparing for a wedding so we couldn’t get inside or too close; Wenonah still tried to poke her head inside.

The ancient marble carved statues that topped every corner and wall around this church were showing their age and the effects of acid rain.

The Bridge of Alpine in Bassano di Grappa at the foot of the Dolemite Mounains, crossing the Brenta River. After the war, the bridge was rebuilt by the local engineering troops, who wear a very particular style hat. The bridge is all wood, except for the foundation in the river.

The guide took a picture of us on the bridge.

Fighting occurred across the river between the allied and axis troops, and the bullet holes were left there as a reminder.

This is the grappa distillery that we toured and sampled at. Of the three couples on the tour, we are the only ones who drank. Why exactly would you sign up for a winery tour if you don’t drink?

This was a collection of all their small bottles of grappa the distillery has sold over the years.

The next town we stopped in was even more beautiful than the first. We walked around the town for a bit before going to the restaurant on this road. It was so quiet and peaceful that I could really move there.

During our walk in the town, we went onto the ramparts of an old monastery, and saw this villa further up the hillside. The architecture allowed it to blend in pretty well, but the large windows gave it away. The real question was the price of this villa.

We stopped at one of the massive old villas that was open as a museum. No photography was allowed on the inside, but all the rooms had full paintings on the walls and ceilings. The old oils were cracking and time was taking its toll but it was still amazing. This is the pool in the backyard and the carved marble bathhouse.

Wenonah under the grape leaves of this vineyard estate.

The Bortolin Gregorio vineyard was our last stop, where we sampled some of their sparkling wine. The parking lot was full of Austrians who come across the border and load up on the wine, filling prados and vans with cases of the wine to take back with them.

R&R Day 13 – Split, Croatia

This morning we entered the harbor of Split, Croatia. This small city looked so inviting, the rolling hills having small public parks and dotted with homes. The backdrop of the city was a massive mountain range, which I would later find out offer hikes and mountain biking, but we were there too little time.

The main feature of the city is the bell tower at the Cathedral of St Duje, which is within the walls of the ancient city. This inner city fortress was originally Diocletian’s Palace.

The side entrance to the palace through the ancient walls.

The main cathedral and bell tower of St. Duje. We toured the free park of the cathedral, but didn’t have the time or interest to go to the pay museum inside the wing of the cathedral.

The bell tower from a couple of different angles, it was a very photogenic landmark.

Beneath the palace were a series of catacombs, part of which serves as the main tourist entrance from the water side. In this space, it was set up as an underground market, but to either side was a museum.

We toured the museum, which actually had a lot of the engineering history of the buildings. Going into the detail of how these catacombs were used as cisterns, landfills, burial chambers, etc. Different rooms were built with different mortars and mortar ratios, causing some to still look perfect, while others were so structurally unsound we could not go in.

The museum did a great job putting lights around these chambers, lighting them up beautifully. (for photographers though, it was a mix of sodium vapor, halogen, CFL, and incandescent, which played hell with my white-balance)

The use of arches and sphere’s shows how engineering savvy that the Roman Empire was, especially 1800+ years ago.

This room has some original timbers that were found in the chambers. Even after nearly 2000 years in damp chambers, the wood was still intact.

The hypnotic circular pattern in the ceiling of a spherical chamber.

Another chamber where this arch and sphere construction method was employeed.

The other side of the museum. They are still working on chambers on this side, but provided a perspective drawings showing what it would look like if all the chambers were open.

The chambers opened up to a small courtyard, with the bell tower still in view.

These intersecting arch structures were impressive, I just think of the moment of hesitation the workers had as they began to pull down the supporting wooden structure hoping their work would hold.

After leaving the catacombs, we ventured around the rest of the ancient palace buildings. This acapella group was singing in one of the stone structures, capitalizing on the great acoustics. Watching how much money they were collecting per song, these guys had to be in the top grossing artists of all time, it was ridiculous how much money the tourists were giving them.

A view down one of the back alleys back towards the bell tower.

Some shots of the interior of the temple of Jupiter. Buildings are crammed so tight in this city, there were mere feet around this structure, making the line to get in here difficult to say the least.

Split is known for their cherry liquor, Maraschino, so we stopped in the small café for a cup of coffee and a taste of the maraschino. It would be the first of many ‘tastes’ of this liquor.

The back of the palace compound was a great public park. This was another small bell tower at church just outside the wall.

The statue of Grgur of Ninski, he defied the Roman aristocrats and the Pope by using the Croatian language in religious teachings. We nicknamed him merlin, which seemed much more appropriate.

One of the marble carvings on the side of the bell tower at the Cathedral of St. Duje.

We walked/staggered back to the cruise ship after running into the Scottish couple we sat with at dinner, sampling many local beers and maraschino on our way back to the ship. This was followed by some friendly wagering and arguing on who could do better on the ship’s rock climbing wall. After signing the waiver that we had not drank any alcoholic beverages in the past 4 hours, we kitted up and made our attempts to summit the wall of the Slendour of the Seas.