Last evening we walked out a little after 7pm to look around Trento a bit and also find somewhere for dinner since we had a very light lunch. There were lots of cafes open and lots of people partaking of evening drinkies. The number of people around may have been due to the Festival of Economics running from 30th May to 2nd June and organised by the University. There is also a 60km cycle tourism event associated with it and in honor of Francesco Moser. Moser was a prominent Italian professional cyclist in the 1970s and 80s and won the 1984 Giro d'Italia.
After wandering around for a while we found a likely looking restaurant with a reasonable menu so went in and were seated very quickly. We were given menus and left to make our selections. Then we waited. And waited. And waited. And eventually we just walked out. They were busy but not excessively so, so there was no reason why they could not have taken our orders and then brought drinks and then let us wait for delivery. Anyway, not far away we came across another restaurant which turned out to be a good choice. Neither of us wanted a full first course so we decided to share a 'House Pâté' of deer and ham pâté, thinking that it would be just pâté with some bread to eat it with. There was a very nice pate of course, but also a carpaccio of prosciutto (three kinds), deer ham, and salami. Very nice. For main Garth had Gnocchi with smoked ricotta while I had a Risotto Porcine. And we shared a bottle of local Cabernet Riserva. A good meal after being ignored at the other place.
Before we left Trento this morning, we went to a local supermarket to see if we could find a suitable slightly abrasive cream to help buff out the scrape from the side of the car. We ended up with the Italian version of Jif (Cif) which could help. Leaving Trento we enlisted Karen to navigate us out and after ignoring some of her illegal instructions managed to get onto the highway towards Padova - the way we had gone yesterday to view the Giro at Levico Terme.
The scenery through the valley is very impressive with sheer cliffs on both sides of the valley and a swiftly flowing river too. Small towns are frequent and eventually we came to Bassano del Grappa a little over half way to Padova. We intended to branch off to Treviso but missed the turn as it happened quicker than we expected after Bassano. Not to worry - we would find another turn off (yeah, right!). A little further on we found a service area with a restaurant and a large car park so we stopped there and tried out some buffing of scrape marks. It was partially successful but one of them was not just chipped but significantly creased so we gave up and continued on our way. In a flash of brilliance? We thought that if we were to take a right turn and head back towards Bassano, we would find the road that would take us east towards Treviso. Mmmm! After driving for a little while back northwards we found ourselves in the middle of Bassano. Not only that, we had failed to realize that stage 19 of the Giro d'Italia was a hill climb time trial beginning in Bassano del Grappa! This meant that many streets in the town were blocked off and we had to go around in circles a bit to find our way out. Eventually we found what should have been a road taking us to Treviso. However, driving along we found ourselves heading towards Vicenza which is somewhat to the north-west of Padova and definitely not where we wanted to go. It seemed that every intersection gave us only choices to continue to Vicenza or head back to Bassano. Sometimes we came to intersections where both options were to Vicenza. Aargh! We eventually decided just to carry on to Vicenza from where we could go through Padova and then to Venice.
We had all but given up on Treviso when we came to a major road which had Vicenza in one direction and Treviso in the other so, at last, we were able to head to our preferred intermediate destination. Of course, along the way we had to resist the temptation to head back towards Bassano ;-). It felt a bit like Groundhog day, or maybe being trapped inside 'The Cube' of the movie of the same name.
Eventually we reached Treviso and, contrary to our usual practice around towns, actively looked for signs to 'Centro' to get to the city centre. There were a few but they ran out so, in desperation, we hung a sharp right to head in what we were sure was the correct direction for the centre. It turned out to be the right choice and, not only that, we found a free car park just outside the old town walls and found a free spot to park. A gate through the wall was nearby so we walked into the old town and found a place for a panino and a coffee for lunch. Along the way we crossed over one of the several canals that run through the old town. Just down from the bridge was a Swamp Hen keeping a large twiggy nest warm on the bank just above the fairly fast-flowing water.
After our fairly brief and light lunch we had a stroll around having a good look at some of the old architecture and then found our car park again. It seems that we were lucky to get a car park as we were stalked by a couple of girls in a car as we walked back to the car. I think they had their eye on Garth ;-)
Finding our way out of Treviso towards Venice was not difficult and we were soon heading towards the final destination of the day. As we got close to Venice, however, the roads became quite confusing and it took both of our wits to keep going in the right direction. It probably helped that Garth had been here before and eventually we found ourselves driving across the Liberty Bridge which was packed with cars. As we came towards the Piazza de Roma which is just past where the rental car offices are, we could not find a car park and ended up circling the parking in the Piazza. Garth hopped out and went back to the Hertz office to ask them where to bring the car. Since there were parking nazis around I kept the car moving until Garth came back and then we followed the directions we had been given for where to take the car. This involved driving back towards the Liberty Bridge and then throwing a U turn at the traffic lights to get back to the Hertz office.
After Garth had signed back the car we had to drag our luggage to the hotel which meant a few trips up and down bridges but fortunately was not too far. The room we have is quite nice and a reasonable size, and nice and cool after humping the luggage through the warm afternoon.
Oh, the guy at the Hertz office said it was much busier than normal because there was something on (turns out to be music concerts), but also there was a strike on at the same time. There were certainly a lot of cars and people around.
Later we will go for a look around, sans luggage, and find somewhere to eat dinner.
