Monday we had our
longest drive yet, which took us to Verona. Finding parking was terrifying and
confusing, but we managed. We stopped for pizza and we met our hostess to get
into our apartment. Unfortunately, Jay's vacation was over, so he had to get back
to work. I went to the grocery store and cobbled together another semblance of
my mom's pasta sauce for dinner. That evening we took a trip for gelato (I make
no apologies, I can only do this in Italy), and on the way back saw a little
restaurant that looked completely charming. We decided that we needed to try to
go their the next day.
Tuesday morning I
was woken up by a hungry Jay and, bleary-eyed, voyaged out into the world to
find breakfast. Fortunately there was an espresso bar on the way, or I might
never have made it back. I returned home and fed the Jay and spent the rest of
the morning resting/blogging/working on science stuff on my computer. After Jay
was done working for the day, we went to walk around the Giardino Giusti, a large Rennaisance garden near our apartment.
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| Giardino Giusti Gardens |
After that we
stopped to look at the menu at the place that had caught Jay's eye the night
before. We saw that they were serving lunch, and decided to stay. It was
wonderful. The three people there were the chef, the sous chef, and a woman. I
have a feeling they were all related. It was a little place with a big long bar
and the entire kitchen was behind the bar so we could watch them cook. They
have a huge passion for Amarone, so looking at their wine list was an exercise
in restraint, all on its own. They had multiple Amarone's from all the big
producers, going as far back as the 90s. The bottles were all far too expensive
for us, but they had a couple of good looking wines by the glass, so we were
quite content. We'd gone in here just hoping that they'd be able to handle
gluten free. But this is Italy, so of course they did! There were only a few
things on the menu I couldn't have. We had a sampling of local meat and cheese
for our antipasti, and it was a work of art.
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| The Antipasto |
We especially enjoyed watching the
Sous assemble it. It was too lovely not to take a picture. They I had some
Burgundy style escargot, which was almost as good as in Burgundy, and Jay had
crawfish wrapped in shredded filo. After that we split an Amarone rissotto.
All to die for. Obviously, I've already decided that we need to come back to
Italy, since I can eat safely here, but after this place, we decided we needed
to come back to Verona, just to eat here again. Jay wasn't a huge fan of
Verona, but between that restaurant and the Valpolicella wine region, I don't
think he'll put up any fights.
We went back to the
apartment for a nap (me) or work (Jay). That evening we walked into the Verona
city center to explore a bit and visit an enoteca for another glass of wine. On
the way in I got ridiculously thirsty, and I saw a place selling fresh squeezed
lemonade and orange juice. I pointed to it and she confirmed that it was
"fresh juice" and asked if I wanted orange or lemon. I said lemon.
Big mistake.
They didn't put
sugar in it.
Jay thinks I did
something wrong and that I was supposed to add my own sugar, or something like
that. I saw no such indication. It's an indicator of how thirsty I was that I
actually drank the whole thing, but I sure as heck didn't enjoy it. About 15
minutes later we found a public water fountain and I drank what must have been
half the water reserve. After that we went to the enoteca, enjoyed our wine,
and then retreated to our apartment for some leftover pasta.
Several years ago,
when Jay and I were first starting to get in to wine, we went to a big Ann
Arbor Wine Club tasting put on by Village Corner, where you can taste and then
order something like 80 wines at reduced prices. They have them every couple of
months and it's a great way to learn about wine. Often we would just pay the
cover and wouldn't end up ordering any wines. Most of the wines are self serve,
but there are usually a couple of bottles which are on the more expensive end.
Sally, half of the couple behind Village Corner, guards these bottles and pours
them herself in order to make sure that everyone can get a taste. At this
tasting they had an Amarone, the first I'd ever tried. I fell completely in
love. I took one smell of it and got very quite. It was intense and fruity and
absolutely beautiful. The taste did not disappoint. I looked at it and said
"Jay, I want this to be my dissertation wine." Dissertation wine is a
concept I'd come up with, mostly in order to justify buying an expensive wine.
What I meant, was that I wanted this to be the wine that we would drink when I
finished my dissertation. Jay listened, and got me the bottle for Christmas
that year. It was my baby, and we held on to it until a few days after my
defense, when we shared it with Oliver and Nina. It was everything I
remembered.
The reason I tell
you this is because, a week before we headed to Verona, I emailed the winery
where my Amarone had come from: Tedeschi. Oliver had told me that I should tell
them that story, because winemakers love to hear stories about their wine. So I
did. Lo and behold, I got a response from a Sabrina Tedeschi, who thanked me
for my lovely story (admittedly, I'd really hammed it up about the wine), said
they'd love to have me and Jay for a tasting, and that, as a gift for the
completion of my doctoral studies, we could have the tasting for free. Shortly
after I was contacted by one of their PR people to schedule the tasting.
Tuesday the 21st we
checked out of the apartment in Verona with enough time to find our way to the
Tedeschi winery. We drove along the edge of the Valpolicella wine region, which
was beautiful and (I think) could give Tuscany a run for its money. We found
Tedeschi and a lovely woman named Paola showed us around the winery before
settling in for a tasting. We tasted two Valpolicella Superiors, a Valpolicella
Ripasso, two Amarones, and, because I asked, a Valpolicella Recioto.
I'll explain the
differences.
Valpolicella is the
name of the region, so any Valpolicella has grapes from that area north and
east of Verona. In Valpollicella there is a particular wine making technique. In normal wine making, the grapes are pressed into juice
fairly immediately after harvest. But in Valpolicella, they take some of their
grapes, often the best, and let them dry for 4-5 months on large tables. The
grapes lose about 30-40% of their water content in that time. They then take
those grapes and press them. The juice that comes from these grapes is ultra
concentrated and high in sugar. It is used to make Amarone. The high sugar
content means that the wines tend to have very high alcohol content, since the
wines aren't meant to be sweet. The resulting wine is this bizarre combination
of fruit and strength that fills your whole mouth. They tend to cost more,
which makes sense, since they have approximate twice as much fruit in each bottle
than a regular wine, but they can also age for a really
long time. Valpolicella Ripasso wine is wine made in the
"regular" way, which is then "passed over" the squished
raisins that are left behind after they make Amarone, which gives the wine some
of the raisiny character of the Amarone. The rest of the wines are Valpolicella
wines, with varying degrees of superiority. The last kind, the Recioto, is a
dessert wine. Recioto refers to the top part of the ear, and this wine is only
made from the grapes at the top of the bunch: those which get the most sun and
develop the most sugar. All the wines we tried were delicious and at least half
the price they would be in the U.S. We came away with six more wines for our
collection in a box that Jay kept referring to as "my babies."
Eventually I did too (especially after we ditched the rental car: "want me
to carry the babies for a little bit?" etc. etc.).
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| The wine we tried |
After the tasting we
stopped for pizza at an AIC place nearby and then made the short drive to
Padua.
Back during my first
year post Tulane, when Jay and I were living in a two bedroom apartment, we
found ourselves in need of a roommate after Kyle abandoned us for a job in D.C.
(Not that I blame him). Then we found out that a student from Italy was visiting
Jay's philosophy program and needed a room to rent. We happily obliged, and
that's how we met Ilaria. She stayed with us for about 5 months and we've been
in touch ever since. So when we realized we were going to be in Italy, we
decided to stop and see her in Padua. She warned us that she would be eight
months pregnant at that point, we congratulated her and looked forward to the
reunion.
We got comfortable
in our apartment in Padua and Jay got in a couple more hours of work. Then we
went to meet Ilaria and her boyfriend for apertivos. We found our way to one of
Padua's Piazza's, which is home to the astrological clock. We camped out on some
steps and people watched.
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| The astrological clock in Padua |
Ilaria found us right on time and brought us to meet
Pierfrancesco (I apologize, I know I'm misspelling that). Ilaria is still the
same lovely exuberant person with the added glow (and exhaustion) of late
pregnancy. Her boyfriend is equally delightful and we spent a few lovely hour
or so chatting. We agreed to meet up again for dinner the next day and sent
them off to find some food for poor Ilaria, who was exhausted and hadn't had
much to eat that day. Neither had we. I had a massive cone of gelato from Grom
(the gluten free gelato chain, and the lady complemented me on my Italian
pronunciation *grin*) and Jay had a kebab for dinner. We were both satisfied
with our choices.
Ilaria was the
reason we visited Padua, and some of the snottier Italians we talked to during
our trip wondered what the hell we were doing going to Padua, but I'm really
glad that we did. It's a really neat old city with some gorgeous basilicas, a
few meandering canals, and the world's oldest active botanical garden (more on
that in a bit). The next day, after Jay had put in a respectable amount of
work, Jay and I headed out in to Padua. We started out by going to a couple of churches with some lovely frescoes. The first was a lovely old chapel with lots of frescoes from (I think) the Renaissance. The second
was a part of the Duomo (The main part of which was closed) that had a number
of mosaics comparable to Ravenna (though newer).
After that we walked
over to the botanical garden, which, as I said, is the oldest surviving
botanical garden in the world. Potatoes, tomatoes, and sesame (among a few
other things) were all introduced to Europe via this botanical garden. It has
multiple trees that are several hundred years old. The old part of the garden
is divided up into a central garden, which is broken up into smaller gardens,
organized by themes suchs as medicinal plants, toxic plants, cacti, succulents,
plants from Asia, and (my favorite) water plants. Surrounding the central
garden is an arboretum with trees from all over the world, some of them almost
500 years old. After exploring the arboretum we walked over to the hot houses,
which are new and modern. As you walk through the hot house you move from
tropical to increasing arid climates. This botanical garden was more museum
like than some I've been to, in that they had a number of displays interspersed
that discussed the coevolution of humans and plants. Mostly, I just enjoyed
looking at the plants. I've decided I need to get better at gardening, cause I
enjoy green things far too much to go without them in my life.
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| Giant lilypads in the garden |
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| One of the older trees in the arboretum, this one hollow, likely due to a lightning strike. |
After the botanical
garden we went to St. Anthony's basilica, which is a huge building with (count
'em) eight domes. No pictures allowed inside, but it was cool to see. The
basilica is the home of the tomb of St. Anthony. In the treasury, you can see the reliquaries holding
to jawbone, tongue, and vocal chords of St. Anthony. The rest of him is,
presumably in the tomb that occupies a space along one side of the church (I'm
sorry I can't be more technical, I know nothing of apses or naves or church
anatomy). Anthony was a miraculous healer when he was alive, and Catholics
still make pilgrimages to his tomb to pray for healing for themselves or loved
ones. We looked briefly at his tomb, but there were quite a few people praying
there and we didn't wish to intrude on them.
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| St. Anthony's Basilica |
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| Abbazia San Giustina from the Prato della Valle |
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| Walking around Padua. |
We met Ilaria in the
square in front of St. Anthony's and walked us back to her place. We walked
through the Prato della Valle, which is notable for being very large and oval
shaped and having a good view of both St. Anthony's and it's sister cathedral
Abbazia di San Giustina. Then we headed to Ilaria's place. She told us that their street is
the same that Galileo is believed to have lived when he resided in Padua, so,
who knows, maybe we ate dinner where Galileo once slept! Perefracesco is a
vegetarian and a gardener and he rose to the challenge of my celiac disease
wonderfully. He made a delicios chickpea soup, followed by a caponata made with
eggplants from his own balcony garden. Meanwhile, Ilaria roasted up a little
pork for us meat eaters. It was all wonderful. We spent a couple of very happy
hours conversing, eating, and drinking wine before we finally said goodbye and
made our way home.
Up next: Venice!
