Soave - Love the wine, love the city

Grapes drying over the entrance to the old town.

 We took the tangenziale 11 from Verona to Soave for a little light refreshment.  Both Friend and I like Soave white wine.  Couldn't believe it but we arrived the day after the week long festival of grapes.  The grape pickers were parked in one of the local areas with their RVs to pick the grapes in this area.  What started as an idea for a quick light lunch of pizza, ended with a terrific meal at the Tratorria Amedeo.  We passed up the donkey stew (a specialty here) for a meal of various pastas and a pork steak.  It was a great meal, the Soave was rather disappointing however.

 I can't resist photos of the food in the windows.  These are samples of the breads.  The festival had taken place last week, but vendors were still around.  We saw stands with all kinds of olives, cheeses, sausages, and bread.  The smells were to die for.

Of course, we had to gas up the car before we took it back to the airport.  That was an adventure.  While Friend was trying to pump the diesel, I was watching the gauge and telling her it was not full.  Finally the guy from the station came out and pointed out that diesel was running out onto the ground.  It was full, but the gauge wasn't registering.  I believe it would have been a great Marlboro moment to just light one up.  Luckily, we did not have any smokers in the group and were able to pay the guy and get out of there before the place blew up.

Wanted to give kudos to Motorbike who has cleaned the kitchen every morning of our visit here in Verona.  Please see the kitchen photos below:

"Kitchen" closed up.

"Kitchen" open

We think this is a pretty cool set up.  Fits the environment of this apartment, too.

Tomorrow is our last day in Italy.  We are already thinking about renting an apartment for a month,studying italian, and inviting our friends to join us for a week or two.  This place (ANTICA VERONA) is a great location.  Perfect in fact.  We are in apartment #2.  It is cute and the owner is an artist.  He hand painted all of the ceilings and furniture you see in the photos.

NOTE:  We are proud that our National Zoo has a new baby Panda.  Italy is wonderful but I think we are all ready to come home.