Grappa-ling with Departures

For our final day in lovely Bassano del Grappa, the four of us spent the day walking through the town, viewing the architecture and the historical sites.

We walked to Bassano's beautiful but tragic Viale dei Martiri (Avenue of the Martyrs). Here, during World War II, 31 members of the Italian Resistance were brutally hanged from the 31 trees as punishment for opposing the fascists. Each tree is dedicated to the Resistance member who was murdered there. It's shocking and chilling, particularly given current political events in the US and Italy.

We strolled through the town gate, Porta Dieda, and admired its Renaissance frescoes that still remained vibrant over 500 years later.

We stopped in at Libreria Palazzo Roberti, a bookstore I'd seen mentioned in Architectural Digest as "one of the most beautiful bookstores in the world." This bookstore is a 17th century palazzo, and Napoleon himself once lived here. From the bookstore floor, it isn't so impressive; but our friends asked a clerk if we could view the upstairs rooms. And Architectural Digest wasn't exaggerating; the clerk unlocked the doors to a stunning, fresco'ed ballroom with a Murano chandelier.

We walked along the River Brenta, and stopped to view Villa Ca' Erizzo Luca, the villa where Ernest Hemingway convalesced after being injured in World War I. Like the rest of Bassano del Grappa, the villa and its setting is historical, serene, and elegant.

Our flight back to Barcelona was at 10pm, so we settled in for a late lunch on the main piazza. I discovered a delicious regional specialty- bigoli con anatra, or thick pasta with duck ragú. With a Campari Spritz, this was a perfect farewell meal to the Veneto region.

After some limoncello shots, we caught a 5pm train to Venice, to spend a bit of time there before our flight. And that would be the end of our adventure.

Well, except that....

1. On the train to the airport, at about 6pm, we received an email from Vueling Airlines saying oopsie, so sorry...your flight has been cancelled! But no worries, they could rebook us on the next flight to Barcelona...on FRIDAY. Five days from now.

(Luckily, after an hour or so of research, I found an Iberian Airlines flight at 6am tomorrow morning. Instead of a two-hour direct flight, it was now five hours with a connection through Madrid. This also meant that we had to spend a night at an airport hotel, because I ain't sleeping in Venice Airport. But thanks to EU regulations, Vueling is on the hook for our expenses. So there, stupid Vueling.)

2. In Venice, we bought airport bus tickets to get to our airport hotel. Imagine our surprise when the bus was cancelled (AFTER they took our €20), because hey, it's Sunday night!

(Luckily, I managed to convince another bus driver to let us hitchhike on his bus out of pure pity.)

3. When we finally arrived in Barcelona, we boarded the airport bus...only to be kicked off halfway home because there was a transit strike today.

This was an inelegant ending to an otherwise amazing weekend.Okumaya devam et