September 23, 2011

Day 16 - The Lessinia plateau

We spent today and this evening in the Lessinia plateau. It's an area of the Veneto that begins about 30 minutes north of Verona. It is known for its panoramic views and ancient inhabitants. It was truly beautiful with lots of interesting things to see. It can be a tourist area in the summer and a ski destination in the winter. It was pretty deserted, except for locals, today. In fact, as we zig-zagged through the area, we found several of the things we wanted to see, closed.

Largest Natural Stone Bridge in Europe

Our first stop was the largest natural bridge in Europe. We spent around two hours exploring the area. All the signage was in Italian but the views we definitely could understand. It was home to an ancient population who inhabited its caves. At first, after hiking in the direction of the bridge, we didn't realize we were standing on it. When we hiked down further, we discovered that we had been. Here are some pics:

There were tons of caves to explore

Okay, after I wrote the above, I closed up shop for the night. I have had a cold for the past few days and it finally knocked me down. So, I'll continue relating yesterday and finish with what we did today.

After visiting the natural bridge we went in search of one of the two restaurants that Marco had recommended for local specialties. We've gotten in the habit of eating a good breakfast at 9ish and then being hungry for lunch around 3ish. This doesn't fit in Italy and so when we found the first restaurant it was closed and they told us to come back at 7pm. We drove to the second one and were told the same thing so we decided to keep exploring.

One of the many quarries we saw.

The area is known for its stone called "pietra di Prun" or Prun stone. It's pinkish in color and is used in building in this area including roofs. Most roofs on old and new buildings were Prun. In fact, it must be pretty cheap for them to use it here because most of the fences were just sheets of Prun laid end-to-end.

New house with stone roof

Old house made of Prun

We drove on to see a cave that had stalagmites and stalactites  but it was closed. Then we went to a fossil museum but it was closed too! It seems that things are only open weekends this time of year and this was a Friday. We didn't put this together until we drove to a different town to see an ancient ice storage building but by the time we got there it was around 5:30 and even if they were open on Fridays, they were closed!

A real Italian cow next to our car

Now with only an 90 minutes to kill until we had dinner, we drove the long way back to the restaurant passing ski areas and many cows grazing in beautiful scenery. It really was pleasant and not too  frustrating until we found ourselves back at the restaurant and it was only 6:15! We pulled into a parking lot near it and Rick took a little nap while I played solitaire on my iPad.

The view of the dining room from our table!

Polenta/Cheese/Mushrooms Appetizer

We got to the restaurant at 6:50 and they were all flustered because it wasn't 7pm. They sat us though in the deserted dining room at at 7:00pm gave us menus and took our order.By then we were pretty punchy and the son who knew a little English warmed up to us. We had a wonderful polenta appetizer that was wonderful.I had "gnochi sbatur" which was the specialty of the area and it was indeed delicious. Rick had sliced pork which he also enjoyed. We shared a lovely plate of veggies. For my foodie friends, here are some pics.

Sliced pork, gravy, walnuts

Gnochi Sbatui

Tomatoes, zucchini, potatoes

After dinner we made our way back to Verona. It was only 40 or so minutes away but the hairpin turns in the dark were a little hairy for me. Rick took them in stride and got us back safely!