Today we hit the road for our much-anticipated 10-day European Road Trip. Thanks to some overtime earlier on in the week, Dan was able to leave work early and we had our rental Volvo V60 wagon packed up, gassed up, and headed North on Italy's autostrada by lunch time. It wasn't long before Jackson was passed out in the backseat.
The 8 1/2 hour drive to Mirano, Italy (just outside of Venice) was more of a delight than we could have expected. The scenery quickly changed as we drove away from Southern Italy and its dry, desert-like terrain. By the time we had driven 300 kilometers Northeast, there were rolling hills of alternating sunflower fields and tightly-packed rows of lush, green crops as far as the eye could see on our left and the striking contrast of the aqua blue waters of the Adriatic Sea on our right. I tried to snap a few pictures as we whizzed past the beautiful sights at 130 kilometers per hour but, as expected, they turned out to be a blur.
We stopped only for a quick stretch of our legs (especially Jackson's) and some grub at one of the autostrada's fancy rest stops, complete with kid's play area, clean bathrooms (that you have to pay money to go in), and beautiful scenery.
We arrived -- with the help of our TomTom -- at the rural Villa Mocenigo agriturismo, a working dairy farm outside of Venice, just as the sun was setting. Italian-only-speaking Giorgio greeted us and, with the help of some translating via cell phone call to his daughter Maria, welcomed us and showed us to our room in what I'm pretty sure was one of five converted horse stalls. To our benefit, the horses are gone now and have been replaced with antique furniture and air conditioning units.
The villa (and its horse stalls) was beautiful in its rustic simplicity. The estate reminded us of the Bennett Estate from the 2005 remake of Pride & Prejudice, especially with all of the animals roaming about.
For dinner, Giorgio (via Maria) suggested we walk down the lane and join the locals for the Mirano Summer Festival. He pointed us toward the faint (and more than slightly off-key) sounds of Britney Spears' Oops!...I Did It Again that were making their way through the corn fields.Similar to any county fair in the US, the festival housed vendors' booths with locally crafted trinkets, a few bouncy houses, and a stage with a band. We were misfortunate to have missed the Queen, Pink Floyd, and Michael Jackson tribute bands who had rocked the festival stage earlier in the summer and had to settle for the screeching sounds of the Italian native Vasco Rossi cover band. Top that off with a karaoke booth (hence the Britney Spears tragedy I'd overheard earlier) and a lot of really bad hair and wardrobe choices and you get an idea of what our night encompassed. I really wished I had brought the camera!
For dinner, you could choose between pizza (of course) and rather than pasta (the other usual choice) we had the luxury of the Italian version of a kebob (at least I think that's how they miss-spelled it) which was actually more like a multi-meat gyro with salsa. It tasted pretty good despite the description.
Day one: cultural experience? Check!
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