Girls Trip to Italy: Part II

04/03/15
Day 1:
There were seven of us that could make the trip to Italy and we all met up at one of the ladies houses that was the most in the middle.

We finally got off around 9:45am and had decided to drive to Innsbruck, Austria for lunch.  I hadn't been there yet, but I had seen pictures and at least one of our ladies had been there before and knew it had exceptional mountain views.

It happen to be around Easter so they had a very neat Easter market.

Spring...

We were so excited to be in such a beautiful place!

Weird sculpture but makes for an interesting photo!

Just look at that view...

I can't wait to travel with these women again!

After a filling lunch and some good shopping for really beautiful hand carved Easter Eggs, we started again towards Vicenza.  It was a bit confusing when we arrived in Vicenza due to my GPS "Shondra" being super bad at clarifying which exit to take and our friend Emily being super brave and aggressive at driving in Italy, which made it hard for me (who is not as brave) to follow.  Eventually, we got to the hotel.  We stayed at the Alfa Fiera Hotel, in the business district.  It was an adequate hotel.  Not terribly interesting but it had comfortable beds and it felt safe.

Pic from their website

The lobby area as seen from the bar area

The bar area where we drank LOTS of Prosecco

Our room...I miss the good ol' "hospital bed".  

For dinner, rather than drive into town, we chose to have a restaurant pick us up and take us to them.  I can't remember them name of them but they had good food.  After dinner, we all went back to the hotel and went to sleep.


04/04/15
Day 2:
We started day 2 by driving to Nove, Italy...one of my happiest places to be!  I'm already planning another trip!  We shopped at only one place though since they have some of the best stuff, VBC Casa Ceramica.

VBC Ceramica

Rows and rows of ceramics!

I would LOVE to own this collection someday too.

I just want to be able to decorate my dinning room table like this...is that so wrong? ;)

Cute display table

Love VBC!

I have more than half this stuff....yay!

A worker actually hand making the ceramics

How can you not love something made by hand?

After shopping until we could hardly carry the bags out of the building, we started driving to our first wine tasting.  We had to grab something to eat first though so we started tasting wine at the restaurant, Salis in Valdobiaddene, Italy.

Salis

The view from Salis

Just look at the vineyards...

After we sat, ate, and drank a little bit, we were fueled up and ready for the wineries.  We decided to take a group picture with our friend Emily's selfie stick...apparently some Italians have never seen one before and were fascinated.

Our "selfie"

Emily and some of the Italian men who hadn't seen a "selfie" stick before

This guy, playing with the "selfie"

This guy and his friend...needless to say, we are all buying selfie sticks...  ;)

This place was amazing

Col Vetoraz was to be our first winery but they apparently forgot we were coming and they were closed when we got there.

The view of their vineyards from the building (this pic is from their website)

We decided to go get some pictures at the Molinetto della Croda, or old water mill.  I was there back in May of 2014 and knew it was such a picturesque place and wanted the ladies to be able to see it.

Molinetto della Croda

Ducks!

Our Croda selfie

Me at the Croda

Miss Sabrina taking in the view

We were running a little behind but got to our next wine tasting as quick as we could...since we know where our priorities are...securely on the vino!

We drove a little way back to Valdobiaddene and to Torre Zecchei and the lovely Ilenia.  

Torre Zecchei

Ilenia made the nicest presentation for us

Ilenia explaining their wines

We even got snacks!

Just waiting for us to drink some wine

The processing area

She said she would hand paint some bottles for us if we sent her a request in advance

Some of the decorations she made from corks

While we were having our wine tasting, some other people came in unexpectedly and we ended up tasting wine with them.  None of them spoke English so it was interesting but they were friendly and we really enjoyed their company.

No selfie stick this time!

When we were done with the tastings and chose our wine, we loaded up our vehicles and went back to Vincenza.

Liz "Baby" pretending to drink!

Ilenia packing us up

The ladies trying to stuff the Volvo

Where there is a will, there is a way!

Ceramics and wine...how can you go wrong?

We stopped by Tony's Pizzeria in Vicenza, which had great reviews for pizza.  They were right!  It was great!

Megan, Sabrina, & Amber

Liz, Liz "Baby", & Emily

Finally, our day was done and we went back to the hotel to sleep!


04/05/15
Day 3:
After a bit of breakfast, we drove to Verona.  I don't think any of us really had any expectations of Verona, other than Juliet's Balcony that inspired Shakespeare in his Romeo & Juliet.  It was actually a lovely place and I think most of us would like to go back and explore more.  We parked close to the Piazza Bra, or main market and walked in to find coffee.  It was very cold but early yet so there weren't as many tourists.

The Piazza Bra in Verona with the Arena di Verona on the right

Arena di Verona (Picture from the internet)

It was not very congested yet in the Piazza Bra

The Piazza

Statue of Vittorio Emanuele II

Monument to the Fallen

Delicious coffee at Caffe Liston 12

The drinks were wonderful and just what we needed to warm up

Liz "Baby", Amber, Liz, Sabrina, Emily, & Megan

After our coffee and a bathroom break, we found some post cards and then started toward Piazza dei Signori and Piazza Erbe to see the street flea markets and Juliet's Balcony.

Walking towards Porta Borsari

A neat little alley...it begged for modeling!

The lovely Sabrina giving us a cat walk strut!

Juliet's alley

Juliet's balcony

Juliet's courtyard (picture from the internet)

The lovely Juliet below her balcony (picture from the internet)

Juliet...picture from the internet because in real time, there were a billion people groping her breasts for luck in love

The lovely Juliet statue

The "love" wall where you can write the name of you and your love

A wall for love notes asking Juliet for luck in love

The cutie patootie Amber putting a lock on the gate for her and her lovey

Isn't she just the cutest!

All us ladies at the lock gate in Juliet's courtyard

After our Juliet trip, we went into Piazza Erbe to find some lunch.  The food was fine but certainly not worth the prices and the drinks were disgustingly expensive.  A very small coke was 4.50 euro...ridiculous!

The neat apartments on Via Oberdan (a street in Verona)

Just can't get enough of how much I love these buildings!

Statue of Dante in the Piazza dei Signori

Statue of the poet, Berto Barbarani, in the Piazza della Erbe

Close up of the statue of Berto Barbarani

Market in the Piazza della Erbe

Pinocchio's!

We made our way to Caffe Brasserie Fillipini by the Fountain of the Modonna Verona and ate lunch.  Like I said, it was just average food but super expensive drinks.  Their wine was heart stopping expensive so I passed on that.

Caffe Fillipini (picture from internet)

Fountain of the Madonna Verona in front of Caffe Fillipini (picture from the internet)

Fountain of the Madonna Verona.  It has been there for over 2,000 years.

Close up of the Fountain of the Madonna Verona

This column, Tower Lamberti, has a Venetian lion on top, which symbolizes the Venetian rule under which Verona fell in 1405.

Behind the column is the beautiful 'Palazzo Mafei', built in 1668. On the top, you can see the six pagan divinities sculptures (Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, Apollo, Hercules and Minerva).

The winged Venitian Lion on top of the column

When we were done roaming around, eating, and exploring, we decided to go back to our cars and drive to Lake Garda.  We walked by a few more amazing things on our way back...

The Arena to the left, Comune di Verona straight ahead

The fountain "The Alps" given to Verona by Munich

We had grand plans for seeing Lake Garda.  Unfortunately, I had forgotten that it was Easter weekend...When we got to Sermione, Italy, we stopped at the waters edge and got some great pictures of Lake Garda.

Ah...water!

I could spend hours here...

Love....

Looking at the peninsula of Sermione into Lake Garda

I might make a poster of this one...

AHOY!  Amber looking out over the water

Our Sabrina striking a pose!

Another selfie!

Me....being a flasher/dork.crazy person...

When we continued on to the peninsula of Sermione, the traffic was in full swing and we could not find parking.  I was lucky, I only had issues trying to drive a standard shift car in terrible stop and go traffic.  Poor Emily, in the Volvo, almost got taken out by a tour bus!  It was stressful and scary so we let two of our ladies out to take pictures and then we headed out, back to Vicenza to drink our Prosecco and eat pizza.

Lake Garda in bloom

I would absolutely go back to Lake Garda and Sermione, but next time I would stay at a hotel that had parking and just walk everywhere.

Back in Vicenza, we ordered pizza from the restaurant we ate at the first night and sat in the lobby and ate pizza and drank Prosecco.  It was a good ending to a great trip!  We laughed until we ached and I can't wait for the next adventure with these amazing women!

04/06/15
Day 4:
Oh how I wish I could forget day 4...some of us went out for a while after dinner the night before and got to bed a little late.  The first car, with Emily, Liz "Baby", Liz, and Meagan left early, which was the best idea.  Amber, Sabrina, and I, in the second car, left around 9:45am.  There was a bad car accident with two or three cars only 15 minutes into our drive.  The traffic jam was about 30 minutes long.  Within 40 more minutes of driving, we got to another accident.  This one was much more serious with at least 6 cars.  That traffic jam had us at a stand still for at least an hour and a half.  Once traffic started moving, we still went in and out of stop and go traffic.  The travel back should have been around 6 hours.  It actually took us about 11....

However, even with that nonsense, it was one of the most fun vacations I've had yet and I laughed more than I swore!  ;)