Bassano del Grappa

Today Sarah decided to show us around some of the smaller villages near Vicenza. First stop was Bassano del Grappa. If you happen to know of Italy’s strongest alcohol already, you will know what this place is famous for. Grappa is a brandy usually made from grape pomace left in a wine press, and somehow they make it so it burns like hell the entire way down. I bought some last fall and neither myself nor any of my roommates could handle it. And we were throwing down about a thimble-sized version. Needless to say this is not my favorite drink.

Good thing the views are nice! Here’s some of the family standing on the Ponte dei Alpini (bridge) with the mountains in the background:


This one gives you a better idea of the view. We missed the red part, but if you look there‘s a big wall with the colors of the Italian flag painted on the side. You can see the green and white here. Very patriotic:

We visited this bridge first to take pictures because the weather was nice during the middle of the day. The Ponte dei Alpini is a covered wooden bridge over the Brenta river, which has been replaced many times due to flooding, but each time it’s rebuilt it remains true to the original 1209 design. Here’s Dad, Ryan and Sarah in front of the entrance:

There were some beautiful old houses near the bridge as well. Dad’s going to use this as his inspiration for the backyard:

If you look closely you can see what we think are bullet holes in the sides of these buildings. We’re guessing they might have come from the war. A lot of the towns in Italy were badly damaged during this time. This is another instance when it would have been useful to be able to read the Italian signs on the bridge pointing to these buildings.

Next stop was the Poli Distillerie, where we were schooled in the process of creating grappa. Here’s the entrance:

And here is what we believe to be the most recent method of mass producing grappa b/c it was right in front of the entrance. Or we might have just needed something to lean on for a while:

We toured the distillerie and looked through all the different test tube-looking devices used to make grappa over the years. Then we got to do a taste testing! I was literally cringing at the thought, but after mom shot one down and said, “Oh that was very good!” I manned up and did one myself:

It must have been so bad I decided to hunch over like an 80 yr old, awesome. Actually, to be honest these versions were not nearly as bad as whatever I had tried before. They had grappa in several different flavors including honey, juniper, pear, blueberry and peach. So we bought some souvenirs and made our way out.

I just have to include this picture because mom wanted to take it so bad she snapped it while the man was still inside his car. Granted, Dad could have hugged the entire car so it was pretty funny, but I’m not really sure the owner appreciated it as much as we did.