Thursday, December 14, 2006

Italian Adventure Pt. 6

Well I wrote this all once already and accidentally deleted it while doing some formatting- arghh.

Wednesday November 29th 2006

Wednesday morning we discovered a delectable Italian treat called Ciambella Tradizionale... mmm mmm mmm. A simple cake normally baked in a tube shaped pan, the one at TreRe was simply formed into a flat oblong shape and baked until crispy but not too hard. It reminded me of a once baked biscotti and was so delicious with just a good smear of the farm's organic Acacia honey. So good in fact that we bought a jar of this honey as a souvenir. I wish I could find the Ciambella recipe now.

We had perfect weather for the 4 hour drive north to Mogliano Veneto, a town just north of Venice. The area is known as the Po Delta and is extremely flat and fertile. Over 1/3 of the population of Italy lives in this area of the country, and we were surprised to see some really long and high dykes. For some reason I always thought dykes were a Dutch phenomenon.

We stayed at Hotel Villa Condulmer, an historic villa full of that slightly rundown, luxurious 16th century feel. It was lovely. Fabulous food, great wines, grand Murano glass chandeliers, and a lovely classic atmosphere. Did you know that Venice is famous for it's liver? It is! So of course that's just what I had for dinner. I am a great believer that you have to try the most well known local dishes where ever you are. In Florence try the TRIPE (heheeehee- I'm kidding!).
President Reagan stayed here some years ago and I fell asleep wondering if I was sleeping in the same bed. Verdi also stayed here when he debuted La Traviata in Venice in 1853! We had a good comfortable sleep and woke up ready to enjoy a very nice breakfast buffet before we drove off (the long way) to Trieste.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think you are confusing the Po Valley, which goes from the foot of the Western Alps on the border with France till the Adriatic some 30 miles south-West of Venice (maybe 300 miles long and 150 wide), with the Po delta, which is just the mouth of the Po River (maybe a 50 sq. mile area).

Jann said...

No thanks for the tripe-hehehe! Enjoyed reading about your travels!

Miss Kim said...

Thanks anonymous... You are correct!