Beyond Venice

Verona, Valpoliella and Soave, Italy

There is so much to see and do in Venice, that it was difficult to venture beyond the magical city, but we thought we should see some of the surrounding, less traveled area. We ran into some cruisers who had recently been to Verona and they were unenthusiastic about their visit. We wondered if we’d made a mistake in planning a trip there.

But we learned a long time ago that when it comes to traveling, different timing and different people could create completely opposite outcomes.

Verona has been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of its many important buildings, like its famous Roman amphitheater and the Piazza dei Signori.

It is surrounded by beautiful countryside and some amazing villas.

Like the rest of Italy, the Veneto region produces excellent wines. So we visited a few wineries. We met with a third generation brother and sister at one winery who were committed to making Amarone wine in the traditional way of their ancestors. We visited another, where two brothers have gone to high tech equipment and are experimenting with new methods and producing different wines. We visited one of the largest producers in the area and still felt like we were in a boutique family vineyard.

“Magnifica”, the world’s largest oak barrel. Full of one of our favorite wines – Amarone.

We have been spoiled forever with these intimate winetasting experiences. Sadly, we were not able to buy much wine as we could not get the car to Berkeley East in Venice, and could only hand carry a few precious bottles.

We overnighted in Verona and to our surprise found a beautiful lively city. Our only regret is that we were two days early for the beginning of their opera season, which is performed in the ancient coliseum and would have been a great experience. Once again, timing is everything.

It was a short but worthwhile trip. We made several stops on the way back to Berkeley East and found that while there is no place like Venice, there really is interesting life beyond the canals.

We stopped in a quaint hill town just east of Verona, Soave. Soave produces a white wine that surpassed Chianti imports into the US in the 1970’s. While it has a reputation as a boring supermarket wine, we found some producers have begun to focus on quality and are producing some complex and flavorful wines.