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ALPINE REPRISE Retorgole
Thursday, 18
September. We left about
9:30 for Retorgole, north of Vicenza and
about 50 miles from Verona, to visit our
dear friend, Elfie Ditore. She will be
90 in April 2015. Although she walks
with a cane or pushes a sort of walker
outside, she is still the feisty person
she always was.
We had called Elfie on the phone a couple times to arrange our visit, and sometimes we were not sure she knew who we were. We were really worried when we arrived at her house and got no answer when we rang the bell. We were sitting in the car pondering what to do when suddenly, and entirely by coincidemce, her daughter drove up and greeted us. She had a key and found her mother in the shower, unable to hear the doorbell. After that we had a pleasant and relaxing day with Elfie. Friday, 19 September. We spent a nostalgic morning with Elfie, all of us realizing that this might well be our last farewell. She begged us to stay, and we really regretted that we had not planned to spend more time with her. However, she is a few years older than us and, judging by our phone calls, we had no idea what to expect. We left shortly before noon. She wanted us to stay longer but our schedule was already locked in and we had to leave. Marostica to Borgo
We
were taking small roads north into the
Alps instead of
using the autostrada. This gave us the
opportunity to visit a number of Italian
towns we remembered from the 1960s. We
drove through Nove, where we had shopped
for ceramics several times, then
continued on to nearby Marostica, a
well-preserved walled
town.
Marostica is most famous
for the spectacular game of
chess (La Partita a Scacchi) held every
second year with live
chess pieces on a huge outdoor
chess board. The latest game
was held just a few days
before, on the weekend we
left on this trip. All the
fences and barricades were
still in place around the
square, an inconvenience for
us but also a novelty since
we had never seen this
arrangement before
Marostica is very near to Bassano del Grappa, a charming little town we had visited several times before. However, we decided to skip it this time and get started on our drive north into the Alps.
We were heading for the Valsugana (Sugana River Valley)
and the
little town of Borgo, where we had
purchased a large round copper coffee
table in 1962. We had reservations
at the 1775 Locanda in Borgo, a fancy
B&B that occupied two adjoining 1775
buildings. The interior of the old
buildings had been gutted, and the new
interior was ultramodern. Jane said the huge
bathroom alone was worth the price
of the room.
By the time we got settled, it was almost 4:00, but we decided to take advantage of the remaining daylight to do a little sightseeing. The principle attraction in the area was the Arte Sella, an internationally acclaimed "exhibition of works of art created in nature with nature."
By the time we returned to the Locanda,
it was starting to get dark. On
the recommendation of the hotelkeeper,
we walked to the little restaurant San
Giorgio for dinner. It was an excellent
choice. Afterward we walked along the Brenta River and through a few blocks of
the old town.
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