One of the things Thomas and I have been looking forward to, since not only our wedding, but the moment I arrived here, is his summer block leave. We have barely been able to spend any time together since being married. I mean, let's face it our entire dating time was spent on weekends and school breaks for myself. Since coming to Italy we've spent the most time together. Of course, even that has been interrupted at times with him having two 2 week trips to Germany for training. So it really comes as no surprise that because of this and the fact that we never had a honeymoon, we were ready for a vacation or as they say around here a holiday.
We decided to do a roadtrip throughout Italy. Our first stop was Vidiciatico. This is one of the locations where the 10th Mountain Division helped to liberate the Italians from Germany back in WWII. Thomas visited this area as a teenager with his grandparents, parents, and brother along with other family members of the 10th Mountain Division. Thomas's grandfather served in the 10th Mountain Division during WWII. Reunions are formed so that the veterans and their families can visit the place were they served. Thomas recently went back to Vidiciatico when he first arrived in Italy. It was then that he was reunited with Bruno, who is the owner of a hotel that was and still is associated with the 10th Mountain Division and it's reunions. After explaining who he was, Bruno remembered Thomas and his family. Thomas was given tons of good food and wine, a big kiss from Bruno's mother, and conversation with Italian only speaking men who were fascinated by him. So, we decided to go there as part of our trip so Thomas could share this part of his life with me.
Meet Bruno! He was such a hospitable man. On our first day, he brought us into the bar area of his hotel and served us free wine. And then he served us some more...and some more...and more. You get the picture, right? He also had this thing about making sure everyone had an equal amount of wine in their glass, even if that meant adding more wine to the other glasses. We spent about 5 hours the first day talking, drinking wine, and eating snacks with him. We even had dinner at his hotel, where he offered us a free after dinner drink. He told us stories and told us places we needed to see.
Monte Belvedere is part of where the 10th Mountain Division went through during WWII to help liberate the Italians from Germany. So many of them are still so thankful for this, especially in this region. There are monuments everywhere, as well as 10th Mountain Division stickers on the windows of local businesses. Monte Belvedere was a few miles long hike up. It was raining the day we did it which was both good and bad. The good was that it made for cooler weather, the bad..well, I mean come on, it's me and rain. Not the best combination. But finally I made it to the...
...TOP!!! Obviously I was thrilled. Rain and all.
I will say some of the best pizza I have had in Italy so far was in Vidiciatico. There was something about the crust or maybe something else, I'm not sure. But, it was like pure heaven in my mouth. It's also popular around here to drizzle olive oil with crush red pepper over your pizza. It's very delicious. So, for those of you in America, take some extra virgin olive oil and combine with some crushed red pepper and let it sit, then the next time your enjoying your Domino's or Pizza Hut pizza drizzle some of it on there. You won't be disappointed. And if you are, well, your just weird in my opinion. ;)
When we left, our hotel gave us a little present, a mini-radio (lol, not sure why) and limone grappa. I thought that was a very sweet gesture. The further south you go the nicer people get.
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