After throwing ourselves on Donatella and Corrado for one last night in their lovely B&B, they recommended we check out the Soave Harvest Festival and perhaps il Parco del Sugato (the loveliest park in Italy and the second best in all of Europe, so they say) and the tiny village of Borgetto.
The festival in Soave was like any other Community event in any small town, except that it took place in the streets surrounding a medieval palace. It was strange and lovely. There was a line of carnival rides, mostly empty on this last day of a three day event following an intense thunderstorm the night before. The street was lined with vendors selling penny candy, tiny doughnuts, and cotton candy. One street was devoted to antiques (aka flea market junk) with an oddly abundant selection of creepy dolls; the second street featured tables teeming with arts and crafts in all their their homemade and awesome ridiculousness. There were food booths featuring risotto, truffles, and cheese (you could get a CONE of cheese for 5 E -- I resisted, but marvelled at the glory of such a magnificent idea!). The main attraction at the festival was a fountain out of which local white wine flowed freely all day. For three euro you got a little pouch to carry your wine glass and could fill up at the fountain as often as you wished all day. Once was enough for us... the wine was a little, young, as one might imagine free wine to be.
We spent an hour or so wandering past all the stalls, enjoying watching families do what they do and then hopped in the car for the 40 minute drive to Borghetto. As promised by Donatella, this little village nestled in the bend of a winding river was picture perfect. It was a busy Sunday with Weddings and a tour bus, so it was looking like we might be eating off the food truck after being turned away from the three lovely restaurants along the river. We tried one last cafe and were led to the hidden patio at the back right on the river. So lovely. And so nice to have a big green salad! After lunch, we climbed the 500 million steps up to another medieval castle with stunning views and then on to the park where we rented bikes and peddled around for an hour or so... The park was beautiful, though we missed the floral goodness that it must be earlier in the season.
We topped off the lovely day back at the little restaurant on the hill from the other evening. When we left in the morning...
Gotta help Bill navigate. Still catching up on the blog, but will get there. Enjoying every last minute.
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