Friday: We started off with a two hour bus ride to Asiago, but to make the up-hill drive more exciting Jack, Kelly, Bree, Greg and I brought wine to drink. Once we got to Asiago, we hoped off the bus and went into our hotel. We stayed at Orthal Hotel in Asiago. I roomed with Bree, we had a loft room, it was so cool!
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| View from the balcony |
We had dinner at hotel restaurant, which was very convenient. We ate bread, veggie pasta, and grilled cheese. And when I say grilled cheese, I literally mean it was just a slab of cheese that was grilled - no bread. For dessert we had a fruit salad, it was equally delicious!
I was already loving it, in Asiago. Then went into town to check out the night life. We went to Bar Corso and had a blast. I pooped out early from a bad headache. Claudio gave me a face message and it helped so much - must be the spring allergies. Some we all went back to the hotel and then right to bed because we all had a long day.
Saturday: We ate breakfast at the hotel which consisted of a croissant and coffee. Simple but it hit the spot. Then, we headed of to the Asiago Cheese Factory, which is one of the three in the world for producing asiago cheese.
The factory had some pretty funky smells as we walked through the cheese making process. At this factory they use 60 tons of milk a day which produces 6 tons of cheese. We walked through the beginning steps of cheese making, one in which was where they put 1600 wheels of cheese in salt water for 9 months.
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| Salt Water |
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| Fresh cheese |
We then walked through where the cheese ages. There were thousands of wheels just sitting on selves aging away. It was a fun spot for pictures.
At the end of the tour we were able to sample three types of the Asiago cheese that was produced at the factory. There was fresh asiago, middle aged and aged. My favorite was the middle aged cheese since it was not too hard -- unlike the aged cheese -- but it had more flavor than the fresh cheese.
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| Trying the most fresh cheese ever! |
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| cheese sampling |
Afterwards, we went into town to the market and chilled a bit. The town was so cute, with its quant shops and streets.
We then went to hotel for lunch and I had potato soup and sausage and a delicious custard for dessert! Next it was time for horseback riding! I rode a white horse named Eva. We warmed up a bit by the
stable and then we got to trotted around the area which was fun! After a few runs up and around the road, we finished our riding and went to explore the hills and farm land around the hotel.
There were dead frogs all over the road, we probably saw at least 20 within the block we walked.
We played frisbee in a field and threw a tennis ball around too. We were taking funny pics on top of the hill and just goofed around. The view was breathtaking, you could see the mountains in the distance and farm lands with cows, horses and chickens wondering around. It looked like Switzerland almost. After dinner we went in the sauna in the hotel it was so nice to sweat out all the poison we drank the night before. It was very refreshing. Then we hung out in Kelly's hotel room and drank some of the alcohol we bought in town earlier that day. It was such a fun afternoon.
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| From left: Me, Diaz, Greg, Jack Kelly and Bree |
Then it was time for dinner. I had spinach and asparagus with barley vegetable soup and more grilled cheese. Dessert was a meragnie cake with whip cream frosting, yummy!
Then we all went to the women's world championship hockey game which was held in Asiago.. who would have thought? It was Italy vs. England and we were having so much fun drinking and watching the game! Greg and Jack were heckling the England team just like we would in the states. I meet a bunch of Candians who were visiting to watch the girls hockey team, which made me realize how big of deal this was, and a bunch of drunk Americans just crashed the championship game! But it was so much fun regardless and we were of course rooting for Italy and they won 1-0! When we got back, Bree and I feel asleep so fast, we were exhausted for our fun filled day!
Sunday: Our first plan of business on Sunday was to go ice skating! It was at the same rink that the world championship hockey game was held, which was quite a coincidence. We had fun skating around for an hour and made a huge chain with the 8 of us. It was great! I missed iced skating, it had been a while since I last went. Afterwards, we hang out a bit at the bar, I got some tea to warm me up! When we got back we had lunch at the hotel. I got veggie lasagna and a platter of asisago cheese with jam. I was so close to being sick of cheese at this point but you can't pass up cheese when you are in Asiago! My favorite cheese was the middle aged cheese called Vecchio. It wasn't super soft and fresh but had much more flavor than the fresh cheese. At this point Claudio cut us off of wine since we had all been too rowdy for normal Italians.. oops! But the unlimited wine was fun while it lasted. We then had to pack up and head off to Bassano. Before we left, we stopped at a grocery store to stock up on Asiago cheese! I got plenty, nearly 20 euro worth of different aged Asiago cheese. Holy cow. I also picked up truffle oil that Claudio suggested.
On our way to Bassano we had to go down the mountain for about two hours. So we were swerving around like crazy! Our bus almost got stuck on a few turns, but the view we got from being on the edge of the mountain was unbelievable!
We had to stop for some car sick people, but when we pulled over we parked at a caffe and a group of drunk guys were all excited for our bus. One of the guys was wearing a sign around his neck that read "Va lomo" meaning he was a groom, so we assumed it was a bachelor party! It was pretty early in the day to be seeing a bunch of drunk people, but Claudio let him come on the bus and make a fool of himself which was so funny to see. We all got a kick out it and then kept going on our way. |
| Claudio getting a kick out of the Bachelor |
We then went to the town of Marostica where they had a gorgeous castle on top of a huge hill. In the piazza they had a human chess board! It was like from Harry Potter or something. They hold huge tournaments every year there. It seemed pretty cool.
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| Human sized chess board |
For dinner we ate at Lunaelaltro which was this amazing pizzeria. I got pizza Light which was a white pizza with carrots, spinach, sweetcorn, asparagus and cherry tomatoes. It was to die for! The six of us all shared our pizza with each other too, but I was very excited for mine, mostly. I couldn't finish it all so we asked for a to-go box and it was a Looney Tunes pizza box! It made us all so happy…. the little things you know? We then headed back to Verona.
