Italy Day 8 - The Road to Venice

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A travel day for us. Pulled up our tents, and headed for Venice.

Along the way, we went from one side of the range of mountains, to the other, crossing a part of the lower Alps, the Apuan Alps. It was cloudy, so you could use your imagination on what the mountains would look like on a clear day, but none the less a good day for travel.

Along the way we stopped for lunch at a farm house. This is a farm house that has been making Balsomic dressing, the real deal. It is regulated by a consortium very tightly. This farm has been making this in the family for 200 years. The 5th generation is now working the fields, and making this very tightly controled product. Acetaia Paltrinieri, in Sorbara. www.acetaiapaltrinieri.it. This isn't anything like what you get at HEB.

After lunch in a redecorated barn that they kept the cows in, we got back on our trip to Venice. The barn is not a barn now, they use the place for wedding receptions, weddings, parties, and other gatherings, where they can show off (aka sell) their product. We got to taste the 2 year old product, the 4 year old, the 8 year old, the 12 year old products. The process takes about 25 years to make the certified real deal. They call it black gold here! And, it is. Two years ago they had a flood that damaged a lot of vines, barrels of aging product, so next year or two, the product won't be as plentiful they said.

Weather has been very "iffy". Still comfortable in short sleeves, or long.

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Photos

Farm house where the family lives
It still looks a lot like it did, but it also has been converted for "store", tasting room, and storage for barrels.

Barrels aging.
Samples are pulled regularly, and the process of aging happens here.

Our delightful host explaining the samples.
Some of the samples are 2 years, others 4, all the way to 25 years old. The process is labor intensive, and controlled by the "master" when he switches liquid from one barrel to the next during the aging process.

Lunch in a barn.
Barn was converted to dining hall to handle guests, wedding receptions, and other event. They left the rings on the walls (behind people sitting screen-left) where they had the cows tied.

Waiting for a Taxi...
Taxi's pull up, we get on, and head for the island.

The "road" into town..
Going down the Grand Canal, headed for our hotel. We have to travel just about the entire length of the canal to get to the dock by the hotel.