Travel Tips

Barbara Forza, being the great lady she is, decided to hold a mini VT meet in Venice, to coincide with the infamous Brad Brown's visit the third week of June. Since Brad tends to travel with personal driver (Kinga), navigator (Yana), plus assorted VTers picked up along the way (while he sleeps in the back seat), this mini-meet should prove to be one of a substantial size, and certainly one of a certain notoriety.

Hotels were tentively booked, restaurants were being researched, and a route to wander about Venice over the weekend was established. Barbara's Venice part was almost complete.

Brad Brown, known on his home page as 'famous guy', noticed that Ma Kettle and I had recently attended a wine tasting, and thought that might be something he'd like to experience while visiting the Veneto Region. So, with a desire to please, Ma Kettle, Paola and I drove to the Euganean Hills in search of reasonable wineries to visit in the upcoming months ahead.

This proved to be a tad more difficult than I had originally thought, as every winery I approached, opened at 9am, and closed early in the afternoon, and then opened only on certain days of the week. The opening hours/days conflicted with other schedules we had, so I was getting stumped.

Fortunately, good friends of ours own Alfio's pasticceria in Padova, which also contains a full bar and has substantial wine sales. I turned to them for help.

Lorenzo, the very helpful son of Alfio and Graziella, went immediately to work, miraculously obtaining space for a dozen or more weary travellers with the most important winery in the Euganean Hills, on the day we requested, 'and' late in the afternoon as required. Very unusual for this winery to be so obliging I might add.

A tour of the property was included, as well as a dozen or more samples of wine were arranged, with the owner himself presiding over the affair, offering his vast experience in describing the various offerings to us.

What Paola, Ma Kettle and I were able to do, was find a neat little cantina in the hills in which a small group could sit and enjoy more wines of the region, in relative privacy, and openly criticise 'G' and various other entities of VT fame with little fear of being overheard.

We thought of Arqua Petraca, a rather unique and rustic hillside town buried deep within the Euganean Hills. If I may, I'll shamelessly plug my travel page of Arqua Petrarca at this time. Please feel free to visit after this narration.

We found just such a place, called Enoteca Loris, located just steps away from the famous Petrarca House. This cantina offers it's own wines, processed from grapes grown in their own fields, and is a working mans vino. Cheap, but quite good. Tourist prices start at 4 euro per litre. Take along an empty container, and you can buy the sfuzo wine for less than 2 euro for a 1 1/2 liters jug.

The owner agreed to offer his facilities to us, and would even supply typical sausages and cheeses from his cantina at a moments notice. Bear in mind, we used Paola's considerable charms on this unsuspecting gentleman. Please note, I generally don't ask adoptive daughters to flaunt their charms, but, after all, this was for Brad and Company...

Ok, at this point, we now had hotels for an unknown number of VTers secured by Barbara Forza during the height of tourist season in Venice, a winery for wine tasting in the Euganean Hills for an unknown number of VTers, a cantina for an unknown number of wine 'drinking' VTers at Arqua Petrarca, but we still weren't finished, nor satisfied.

We needed a place to enjoy a good meal, and not a tourists meal either. After all, wine will have been flowing all afternoon, and we'd need something to sop it up, but in a very tasteful way.

Once again, Lorenzo came through for us. At great peril to his waistline, he ventured forth to sample the various offerings at different Trattorias throughout the Hills. At considerable cost to himself, both through alteration costs and meals, not to mention the gasoline and sunny afternoons wasted eating and drinking, Lorenzo was successful in his quest. An eatery was found, the booking secured, menu discussed and special prices agreed upon.

Last but not least, accomodation within the hills had been loosely requested by some of our expected VTers for the night of the wine tasting, so driving back to Venice could be avoided while in such 'a state'.

Once again, a difficult task, as we had no definite numbers, especially since Barbara also had rooms secured for the same dates in Venice. This was going to be tricky, as hotels logically expect guaranteed payment for reservations.

Ma Kettle stepped up to the plate, and using her considerable contacts, made very loose arrangements with the manager of a very exclusive group of hotels in the hills, who promised us a section of rooms at a very special price.

We were set. Well, maybe not set, since we still had no idea who was coming, who needed rides, who could provide rides, blah, blah, blah, but we knew we'd have to do something. Not overlooked, simply shelved, being a problem which was not easily solved until faced with it.

Unfortunately, the day before the wine tasting event, I received an apologetic email from Brad Brown, advising that he had experienced some family problems. He was forced to cut his visit to Venice short, therefore cancelling his participation in the wine tasting and so on.

A most unfortunate situation, so plans for the following evening were curtailed at this point. Luckily, a few phone calls were all I had to make, while Barbara went into crisis mode and attempted to fill the reserved rooms in Venice. How she managed this, I'll never understand. When I asked if she had experienced any problems, a slight smile and a simple shrug of her shoulder was all I received. A typical Barbara Forza response. A real classy lady.

Friday evening, I received an email from VT member Dao (David) who had heard about our mini-meet from Kiwi (Pam). It seems he was going to be arriving in Venice on Saturday afternoon, and wanted to know details about where the dinner was to be held etc. Effetti (Francesco) supplied his cell number and DAO arranged to call him upon arrival in Venice. (I had misplaced my cell earlier that day, so I was unable to help).

Ma Kettle and I arrived in Venice on Saturday afternoon and were heading towards our favourite eatery in the ghetto for a quick snack before dinner (?), and lo and behold, I heard someone call out loudly... "Are you Pa Kettle"? I turned, and amazingly, it was Dao (David) with his lovely wife Ayshea , the same fellow who had emailed me the night before.

We were nowhere near our VT meeting place, certainly not prearranged, just simply a matter of a 100,000 to 1 chance that he'd spotted the VT hat perched on my head while I was standing beside the canals of Venice when he wandered past. Weird, if not a bit spooky. Still find it hard to believe.

They were attempting to locate their B&B, but, this being Venice, following street numbers in normal numerical fashion is next to useless. Fortunately Ma speaks Italian, although not the Venetian dialect, but she started quizzing the locals as they walked by anyway.

We finally found it down a back alley (literally), after numerous false starts and odd directions from others just as confused as we were. Their landlady had left a note saying she'd be back soon, with a local number to call in case her boarders arrived earlier than she did, so while David called, we sat at a cafe out front with Ayshea enjoying a cool drink and conversation. Turns out this was David's (Dao) first VT encounter. How exciting!!! I think he came because of Brad though...

After cooling down a tad, Ma Kettle and I left to find the bulk of the VT group after giving Dao directions to dinner at Bacaro Jazz for later that evening.

We found Barbara, Paola, Francesco, Boris, and Daniel at the foot of the Rialto Bridge. Unfortunately, Daniel (KenAdams) was just heading out of town, so a very brief hello/goodbye was exchanged. Too bad, as Daniel and I had had a discussion about Italian food that we hadn't quite finished in Verona a month or so earlier.

The rest of us then went in search of an alcoholic beverage, catch up on gossip, curse Brad Brown (that was fun), and to await the arrival of Dao and wife.

Later that evening, we enjoyed dinner at Bacaro Jazz, listened to the music, and took photos of the numerous bras hanging from the rafters. It continues to amaze me that perfect strangers can get along so well. No, I don't mean the removal of bras in public, I mean the interaction of VT members.

Boris was amazed that Ma Kettle spoke Italian so well, and disappointed that I remained such a slug. Ma admitted I was a lost cause, so I was quickly forgotten as a topic of conversation. BTW, I enjoyed meeting Boris, quite a gentleman, somehow we never made contact in Verona other than a brief handshake.

At our end of the table, my old pal Francesco and I continued to take snapshots of David wearing a veil. Those shots I believe can be found on Francesco's (Effetti) page, and I tried desperately to get a picture of Barbara without a hand in front of her face. So shy...

It was most unfortunate that Brad, Yana, Kinga, Aggie, Nathalie and Charles were unable to attend our little meet. I really had been looking forward to reuniting with Brad again, as well as with Kinga and Yana, and finally getting to meet other expats Nathalie and Charles. Aggie was new to the group, and I'd loved to have been able to get some dirt on Brad from her.

Nathalie and Charles, you just wait, you can't run from me forever.

Oh well, another day Brad, but you'll buy dinner...

All in all, an enjoyable evening was had by all. It was perhaps more difficult on DAO and his wife, as the rest of us had met previously in Verona in May, at the 1st European VT Meet 2005. It is tough being the odd man out, but you manged quite successfully.