7. Arriving in Italy 🇮🇹 - The Euganean Hills

Heading into Italy, around the Bay of Trieste, and passing Venice to the left, we arrived at the Euganean Hills (Colli Euganei) just to the south west of Padua - an area completely new to us, but one we thought looked interesting - and didn’t seem to be suffering with the horrendous flooding🤞A fascinating volcanic landscape with peaks rising from the flat Padua plain - lots of opportunities for walking and biking, and pleasantly surprising to find it was a major wine producing region too 🤣 The region is quite small, and our first stop was on the western side at a beautiful winery, the Bacchus & Ariadne Agriturismo in Vo - a place we’d found on the Park4Night App.

Despite the winery and restaurant being closed (we did know in advance), we were welcomed to stay the night in the grounds, and for free (we did buy some lovely wine from them in return 😀) An ideal place for us to unwind and for Rubes to relax and explore 😃 As it was grape harvesting time it was interesting watching all the busy activity of grapes being cut, and tractors busy transporting them around the estate. It was great to be back in Italy 🇮🇹 

Harvesting the grapes

The weather still wasn’t great, but we headed out to explore, and as luck would have it, about 500m up the road we found Villa Sceriman, an ancient 16th century complex of Palladian design, and now a most fabulous winery complex. The old stables house the huge bar and shop where you can sample, drink and buy wine. It was an amazing place, and the grounds beautiful. Fortunately we just arrived as a tour group were leaving, so we had the place practically to ourselves, with the friendly woman serving helping us to make some good choices 🤣 At less than €3 for a glass of fabulous wine, in such an amazing venue - it’s one of the things that Italy does so well! 

Dave sampling his first wine 🍷

The bar in Villa Sceriman

Wine shop inside Villa Sceriman

Enjoying a pre dinner drink at Villa Sceriman

Outside terrace at Villa Sceriman
Wisteria - beautiful in summer (we’ve seen the photos 😃)

In need of food we arrived at one of the only open restaurants nearby, and were heartened to see a group of local Italians waiting for it to open - thought it was definitely worth giving it a go 😃 It was a very typical Italian restaurant / dining room - bright fluorescent lighting, a lot of white plastic, and various bits of gold paraphernalia - not the sort of ambiance we prefer, but prepared to give the food a try 🤞 We weren’t disappointed - a lovely burrata and prosciutto to share to start, followed by homemade tagliatelle with wild boar, followed by their speciality fried chicken with their secret recipe tomato sauce (to share). We weren’t going to order the chicken but the waitress (who spoke fluent English, and was lovely) was aghast that we would be missing out on the dish that they are most famous for - so we ended up sharing a portion. It was actually delicious - don’t think I’ve eaten as much meat for years, as I seem to be doing on this trip 🤣

Tagliatelle with wild boar ragu

Lovely burrata 

Signature fried chicken and secret red sauce! 🤣

The area has loads of opportunities for walking, so the following day, in need of some exercise after the previous evening’s indulgence, we did a lovely walk from a village nearby classed as one of the most iconic walks in the region - the Monte della Madonna Trail. Walking very steeply through ancient oak forests we eventually arrived at the shrine of Madonna, the Sanctuary of Monte della Madonna. Interesting that the only two people we saw on route were 2 single men, both who appeared to be doing the walk as a pilgrimage to the shrine. The weather wasn’t great - very overcast and drizzly, but the views were lovely, and could clearly see the volcanic peaks rising from the plain. It was described as a short walk, but my goodness, it was strenuous - was completely shattered afterwards! Rubes made a good call, voted with her feet and stayed in bed 🤣

Euganean plain

Euganean hills

Volcanic peaks in the Euganean hills

Walking through olive groves 

Beautiful oak woods

It was a tough climb!

Madonna shrine

Sanctuary of Monte Della Madonna

Ruby’s day of rest 🤣

So wanting somewhere to chill out for the afternoon, we ended up a few km further on at another lovely small winery agricamping. Greeted by really friendly Dutch owners it was a lovely place for us and Rubes to relax. Again, there was a lot of busy activity harvesting the grapes, and the owner actually gave us a huge bunch of Victoria grapes, traditionally used for making Prosecco, but also good for eating - we opted for the latter 🤣 The one main thing this place didn’t have in its favour was its proximity to the motorway - we couldn’t have been any closer if we’d tried! Sadly the noise was a bit intruding, which is a shame because I’m sure the farm existed many years before the motorway was actually built. But still, we had a lovely one night stay 😃

Our camp for the night

Tasty Victoria grapes

Interesting old tools at the winery

Produce for sale at the winery

Close by were some spectacular gardens - Valsanzibio, built by a rich Venetian family,  Barbarigo, 350 years ago as a thank you to God for sparing them from the plague of 1630. The garden contains a 400 year old Boxwood Labyrinth, cited as the oldest in the world! The gardens are described as being “designed around an allegorical journey, conveying the positive message of a life where difficulties are faced and where there is always a solution: a life where, every now and then, it is good to stop and meditate; a life where time is precious and must be lived intensely, with joy, waiting for eternity” Must admit it did feel a particularly calm and peaceful experience wandering around 😊 Interesting also that there is a huge lake at the front gate entrance - apparently it having been originally designed to enable rich noblemen from Venice to arrive directly to the gardens by boat, the whole gardens being built on a former floodplain 😂 Got chatting with a group of English tourists who were on a week’s coach tour of Italian Palladian Villas - fascinating the difference in interests that we all have 😊

The 400 year old Boxwood Labyrinth 

In the labyrinth lookout 😃

Hedges and ornate statues

One of the many lakes

Central avenue of the gardens

Hmmmm not sure if Dave’s strength matches!

Gate through which gondolas would have arrived in the past

Later that day we ended up at the beautiful ancient fortified town of Monselice, and finding a lovely small camping Sosta provided by the local rowing club, right in the centre of the town, we decided to stay for the night (€10 per night, including electricity - a bargain!). Had a bit of trouble unlocking the gate to gain entry, but reading others’ (fantastic) reviews on the camping App did the trick! Although it was now very hot we did manage to find a bit of shade, and Rubes found the perfect tree to snooze under 😃 Dave got chatting with a couple of guys from the rowing club - seemed like they were building beautiful boats to use on the canals around this region, similar to those used in Venice a few miles away - an activity of particular cultural importance in this region. 

Building the rowing boats

Ruby’s cool spot 😃

Monselice has the atmosphere of a medieval town, with the magnificent castle dominating the horizon, and many huge palatial churches and private villa residences. Wandered around the interesting cobbled streets, visiting the various monuments and villas, then ended up with a guided tour of the castle, the oldest parts dating back to the 11th century. More like a museum inside, it was quite shocking to see all the barbaric weaponry and hear the gruesome stories from the past! But absolutely spectacular to see 😃 

Monselice castle

Castle kitchen 

Trying out the armour for size

Crossbows featured quite a lot in the gruesome stories 

The castle private chapel 

In need of ice cream after the castle tour 🤣

On the search for authentic pizza again, following a recommendation we ended up walking to the outskirts of the town to find a fabulous family run restaurant. It was 7.30, but we were the only ones there! Not that that mattered, we were greeted so warmly and the pizza was absolutely delicious - so worth the walk 👍 Rubes was a big hit too  - the staff absolutely loved her, and kept coming outside one by one to fawn over her - she loved it too 🤣

In search of pizza - Monselice

Tasty pizza

Our final destination was at a small agricamping, another small wine producer, Agriturismo Alba - a great place to relax, read and swim 😃 Our luck was in as it was Saturday, and the onsite restaurant only opened at the weekend - we booked in pretty quickly! It was a lovely experience, warm enough to sit outside under the veranda. The meal was delicious too, typically Italian, and I did manage some vegetarian options! The wine was great too, organically produced at the farm - ended up buying some the next day to take with us on our onward travels. 

Dinner at Agriturismo Alba

Delicious cheese & vegetable tart

Dave’s antipasti of ham with butternut salad - delicious 🤤 

Ruby’s cool spot 😃

The Euganean Hills are absolutely beautiful, and as with so many places we have visited on this trip, are extremely bike friendly. So much so that not only are there bike lanes connecting towns and villages, but there is also a green dedicated bike route that encircles the whole of the region - 64km in total. It’s amazing to have such a facility, and of course it is really well used. Fortunate for us, the bike ring passed by our camping, so one afternoon we set off to visit the small town of Este a few kilometres to the west, the track running along side of the canal. There’s no way I would have cycled there if there wasn’t a green way option 😃 Mountain biking opportunities are also huge in this region and Dave had fun going off exploring different trails 😊

Map of Euganean hills showing biking route around the perimeter 

Views from the cycle path

Cycling back to our camping 

Beautiful iron gates on the bridge crossing the canal along the cycle path 

Este is a beautiful small town. The 12th century castle dominates with its kilometre long defensive wall and towers. Built by the Este family, it is surrounded by beautiful palatial gardens and parks. It’s the sort of place that appears to blend well its authenticity with tourism. Beautiful architecture lines the wide streets and small squares, and as with so many other places, bikes are everywhere ! If fact when arriving on the outskirts of the town along the bike path there was a bike tools station and a notice welcoming bikes to the town 😃

Este castle

Walls & towers of Este castle 

Este

Famous clock tower in Este

Couldn’t leave Este without visiting the award winning ice cream shop - Geletarie d’Italia 2023 🎉  We think that the award was for an almond based ice cream block between 2 biscuits - reminded us of the old ice cream wafers. Anyway, Dave gave this a try, and it was delicious. I stayed with the lovely amarena (black cherry).

Gelateria d’Italia 2023

Award winning ice cream blocks

Delicious 🤤 

So, time to move on now and head further south. It’s been a really interesting experience this past week exploring this totally new region. As with so many other places we’ve visited in Italy, life seems really easy going here. People are friendly and welcoming, have a love of their own country, and a real pride in their local produce. Was great to eat some lovely Italian food, sample lots of the locally produced wines, stay at some wonderful small family businesses, and generally relax - very much slow travel 😃 The walking and biking was great too - and this definitely offsets the former 🤣.Time to inspect the weather forecast for the coming week and decide on our next destination!