And so, to Italy

After a whirlwind introduction to Sweden and to Europe, I bundled poor Matt, still jetlagged and confused about what language he should try and speak, onto a plane bound for Treviso in Italy.

Treviso

The official reason for our visit was so that we could attend the wedding celebrations of my host sister Daniela, but both Matt and I were pleased to have the chance to go to Italy - I love it and Matt was prepared to try and eat his body weight in pasta! We arrived in Treviso in the evening to the sound of church bells ringing, tasty cooking smells and HOT humid weather. After a tasty dinner (mmm prosciutto e melone) with the lovely Rosalia who we were staying with, Matt and I hit the late evening streets for our first gelato. And things pretty much continued in that vein. Warm weather, lots of gelato, lovely friends to catch up with and lots of good food and wine.

On Thursday, we spent the day exploring Treviso which is a beautiful walled city with lots of water and cute old buildings.

Matt's first real pasta

Matt and the old Treviso city wall

Having an aperativo in the evening
A fashion show in Treviso's main square

Venezia

On Friday, we went to Venice for the day and caught up with my friend Steph from Hobart and her friend Alanna. Together with Steph's boyfriend Adam, they are travelling around the world for about 8 months and it just so happened that they were in Venice when we were. Ace! We did the usual Venice-y kind of things like seeing glass blowing on Murano and wandering the pretty streets. And yes, we also managed to sweet talk a gondoliera into giving us a good deal for my first ever gondola ride! And actually it was a whole lot of fun! Well worth paying for.

on the gondola

Steph on the gondola

Venice by night

Trento

Matt and I spent the weekend in the mountains in Trento (near the Austrian border) with my host sister Daniela and her now husband Marco. It was really fantastic to see Dani again and we did a lot of fun stuff. It is also the first time in quite a number of years that Dani and I have seen each other for more than a couple of hours, so it was great to get time to catch up properly. One night Dani and Marco took us up a mountain to a traditional Trentino restaurant where we ate a fantastic feast of home grown and cooked treats. We also had a look around Trento and visited the castle. It was Matt's first European castle so he was pretty excited.

As it turned out, Dani and Marco cancelled the picnic they had planned to celebrate their wedding - it was forecast to rain and so looked like it wouldn't be much fun. So instead they had a whole lot of friends over to their house for a big lunch which was really nice. Fingers crossed that the weather holds for the wedding picnic which is now planned for this coming weekend!

Trento
Part of the castle in Trento

Daniela

Verona

On our final day in Italy, Matt and I left Trento early and caught a train to Verona where we spent a lovely half-day exploring the city centre and eating lots of gelato. Then in the afternoon, we caught another train back to Treviso where we jumped on a plane back to Sweden! It was a fleeting visit, but we had a wonderful time!

Fun police have their say in Verona!

View over the river