17th June 2000 Driving Vellano to Barbarano
Trip Start
Apr 27, 2000
1
52
81
Trip End
Aug 09, 2000
Barbarano,
Italy
Thursday, June 26, 2003
We didn't leave Vellano till 11.00. Despite Mary's advise (she had advised we use the alternative scenic mountain road), we took the Autostrada from Montecatini Termi, toward Firenze, then the Autostrada to Bologna, and on north toward Padua. Mary advised that in summer in particular, with tourists and Italians on holidays, these motorways have heavy traffic and are slow. She is right. Even so, they are still faster than mountain roads where you never make much speed anyway, and have to slow through every village. The Autostrada between Firenze and Bologna has to be the worst we have struck in Italy. For a start, there are only two lanes (in each direction). The road cuts up through the mountains, there are at least twenty tunnels, it is thick with trucks, there are the usual cars traveling at only 90kmph, many of the big sweeping curves have either no camber, or are cambered the wrong way, and trying to weave their way through it all are the usual high powered cars trying to do 160 kmph. Not a pleasant drive, but it only takes an hour to Bologna from Firenze. The countryside is special. Lush green hills and mountains, farms everywhere possible, and the occasional pretty village off on mountain ridges. One minute you are working your way through these mountains, and with no warning, you are out on a vast flat plain that seems to stretch on forever. You have entered Emilia-Romagna, on the southern edge of the Po River valley.
Emilia-Romagna is only 80 km from the southern edge of the plain to the Po River itself. From then on, you are in Venetia. So, for a hundred kilometers or so, we were driving across a very flat plain, heavily irrigated, and every square inch planted with corn, wheat and grapes. So different to the south of Italy. All was blanketed in a haze, which we weren't sure was either mist or smog. We came to appreciate that it is smog. Industry throughout this area, and particularly the Veneto, is booming. A Banker (lawer) in Vincenza, boasted to us, that the economy of the Veneto is larger than the entire economies of Greece, Checkoslovakia, Spain etc. They have to import workers from the Balkans and Africa etc. Supposedly no unemployment, and yet a newspaper article stated that Italy has one of the highest unemployment rates in Europe, particularly among 16-25 year olds, and astronomically high for women.
The sky overhead always seems to be clowdless and blue, but smoggy in the distance. So, when we arrived at our apartment at Il Castello, a villa on the edge of the village of Barbarano Vicentino, the sky was clear and blue, and the temperature warmish. It had only taken 4 hours from door to door, three hours of it on the Autostrada, and cost L20,500. We had taken a ticket when entering the autostrada at Monticatini Terme, and only paid the one toll when we exited at Monselece (20 km south of Padua). The last 20 km from Monselece to Barbarano, is a fairly flat and wide valley, but there are hills to the west and east, which we were to drive later in the week. The villa is on top of the hill that backs into the Monti Berici, and has fantastic views over the farmland (with the odd factory here and there) to the west. The Colli and Euganei hills hide Padua, which is oly 30 km away to the east, and the Monti Berici, which run north, hide Vicenza, which is only 15 km to the north, and Verona, 40 km to the west. Now, this makes it sound as though it is nice and central to cover the entire Veneto, which it is, but it doesn't reveal that the whole area is so heavily settled, with villages no more than 2km to 3 km apart in the entire Veneto, that travel is extremely slow. As an example, the drive of 15 km to Vicenza, during the day took 30 minutes. One morning at 7.30, when we thught we would make good time, it turned out to be peek hour, and took over 45 minutes.
Our apartment was on the first floor of a square building that has four apartments. We had plenty of windows opening into the gardens betwen the working buildings and the Villa itself. The gardens aren't particularly stunning, but very pleasant with large shade trees, and Olianders in pots, and expanses of lawns. They also cater for functons such as weddings, and there was a small party for perhaps twenty people the evning we arrived. Around the apartments are white gravel areas with tables, chairs and umbrellas for outdoor dining or relaxing. Not as smart as Assisi, Firenze and Vellano, but large and comfortable. At 5.30 pm we went in to town (barely a kilometre), where there was a supermarketo. Bought some basic supplies, and for dinner we cooked pasta with a sauce of tomatoes, sausage, garlic, asparagus and parsley. Off to bed with a matress that almost sagged to the floor and pillows filled with bricks.
