Travel Weekend 2 (a.k.a., Back Home to Paderno)

When we woke up the next morning in Bolzano, the sky was drizzling its last few sprinkles of the day. We went downstairs for a super-delicious breakfast buffet… lots of strudel and an amazing fresh fruit bar. By the time breakfast was over, the rain had stopped and the clouds were being burned off by the sun.

We took a long leisurely walk through the town and past the Italian Arch that is often defaced by Austrians who want Bolzano back for themselves. We also walked through a small open air market. This little town square was definitely some sort of holdout of all things Italian. People only spoke Italian and they only sold Italian products: Tuscan cheeses and sausages, Sicilian olives, Italian pastries. There was not a strudel to be found in this little spot. Being there really emphasized to us how different Bolzano is from the rest of Italy. In fact, that may have been when my dad started calling Bolzano Austria. So if you ever hear him talk about his trip to Austria, you will know what he’s talking about.

Our train left at noon. We got into Castelfranco Veneto without a hitch. But the ride home was a little dicey. After our Venice day-trip and sometime during our Bolzano day-and-a-half-trip, a little town right outside of Castelfranco was hit by a tornado. We hadn’t heard the news. But we definitely experienced all the backed up traffic. We sat in traffic for quite a while and were turned back the other direction at one of the roundabouts very near the heaviest damage. So we detoured through the countryside and got home about an hour later than expected.

For our last dinner, I took my dad to Casa Biancha, the restaurant where Bob and I ate a couple weeks earlier. I figured that since it was my dad’s last night in Italy, I needed to make up for the previous night’s meal. We had a great dinner and split a liter of red wine. I think it was a perfect way to end his trip.

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