Pordenone

David and I flew from Paris to Venice and were picked up by my friend Ellie Buford and taken to her house in Perdenone.  I met Ellie when I went hiking with Dotti Stalher in the Dolomites this past September. Ellie made the mistake of asking me to come visit when I came here to live in Italy!

       Ellie was in charge of ordering and oh my, did we eat and drink well at the Fossa Mala Restaurant. This is only the ante-pasta!   The Fossa Mala  is also a villa that offers elegant staying as while as a  very big winery.

                                                                                                             wonderful wine!

                                                 Meet Ellie...

 Fields and fields of grapes starting.

            We head for the mountains on a day trip. Of course we are in the mountains but oh just wait.

We went over passes. A route that Ellie will tell you was the route for WW1 I believe Rommel's route. They had an advantage and used it. 

 The hills have lots of history from the World Wars and Ellie is an historian of them. She is about to  give a talk to all the "high ups" generals over here and some other distinguished guests. They will be mesmerized by her wealth of knowledge and talent for telling a story!
 Ellie can out-do most anyone. They sent her in one day to get our troops in shape! She put them to shame but they didn't know looking at this white haired lady that she was the first woman to climb Mt Everest from the Tibet side. and still running 3 miles a day.

These tunnels were built in 100 days during the Great War. This is called the San Boldo Pass. Five tunnels each with ascending hair pin turns within and 6 bridges over a distance of 11 miles.  Clear evidence of the mastery of Italian engineering and tunnel building!

 The 17 represents the number of hairpin turns to this mark.  The 6 (on the right) means this is the 6th tunnel (or bridge) on this incredible mountain pass.

Stopped for a quick cup of coffee and a bathroom break.  A squatting toilet. I thought I left all those in Bali!

Here we approach the Castel Brando. Ellie was full of fun and this castle was very interesting. This castle was home to Emperor Claudio Augusto, to the Queen of the Longobards to Charlemagne , Kaiser Otto1, and many more till the fortress house of Gattamelata, Queen Comaro and the last of the Brando warrior (Brandonlini 1436-1959).
 It has a 2000 year history among its 260 rooms and 20,000 sq meters of cover area.  It has 80 hotel rooms.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
 In this room are many instruments of war. Here are the ones worn in the movie Brave Heart.

It is a huge collection that covers a wide period of time. I have many pictures but just showed you two.

Many rooms...They hold conferences here and banquets. Can host up to 1800 guests in 4 large halls,  We were asked to stay one more night to join in the medieval dinner. Can you imagine what fun that would have been in a real castle!

And with every real castle come the stories of what happened in the early times.Words not needed.

After lunch, Ellie introduced us to the owner's wife and then we met the chef too. Ellie knows everyone!

This is Ellie's room when she brings groups here.

We are leaving this exquisite castle. We took a cable car (funicular) up to get to it..

On to the mountains.

Stopped a minute to say hi to our friends and take some pictures..

                                                   The Italians are wonderful builders.

The Vajont Dam- the day 2000 thousand died in the night,

This is a sad story of this area. There is much written but I will try to tell it in a short version. This is the dam that was built in 1959 north of Venice. It is one of the tallest dams on the world- 860 feet high and 89 feet wide and 11 ft 2 in thick at the top.  There had been many objections to the filling of the dam and the geological signs of instability of Monte Toc on the southern side of the basin were ignored. The accident was caused by a massive landslide that caused a tsunami in the lake and overtopping the dam.- ten times higher than predicted. The destruction wiped out several villages completely.

Names of those that had died. But as I read them, they were children's names.

                                    Chapel along the way. Not too far from the dam.

                              Stopped for lunch and my partners arrived! You are a driver or a medic.

Snow on the pass. It kept getting worse till we couldn't drive through it and had to turn around.

I leave you with this breath taking scene. It was and is so beautiful. Thanks Ellie for a great trip!
Ciao :-)

Our anniversary dinner

We had an invitation from the owner to have dinner at her hotel called Palazzo Marziale. This is where one of David's student is doing his internship.

We had an incredible dinner. They served us Prosceco to start then came with a fish on a bed of lettuce. Next came prawns on a bed of risotto.  I had ordered the lamb chops which melted in my mouth and David the sea bass.

We finished with a delicious dessert. Everything was done with an artistic flare which I can't even begin to describe. I can't do it justice.

This boutique 5 star hotel has 7 guest rooms.  She does not use numbers on their doors but has named each room and developed the decor in each around a particular theme.  Every year they close in January and early February to repaint and repair.  The current building has been in existence since the 1300s and was built as a palace over an early Roman site.  The current owner's family has owned this the property since the 1800s.  They converted the space to this elegant hotel about a decade ago.

The President of the college lives on the top floor.

 The entrance.

 The dining room

This is the room where we ate.

 Sitting area.

 The stairway that leads down to a function area where you are able to see Roman ruins that are exposed through glass "windows" in the floor.

Outdoor dining.  There is also another restaurant that is a steak house and less formal .
It was a truly elegant experience and a wonderful way to spend our 44th wedding anniversary.
Ciao :-)