I found this recipe in the May issue of Cooking Light, and thought it would be perfect for our Memorial Day barbecue. So for those of you who asked for the recipe and do not have access to Cooking Light:

Strawberry Buttermilk Sherbet

2 cups chopped strawberries
1/3 cup agave nectar
1 1/2 cups whole buttermilk
3 Tblsp. Chambord (raspberry flavored liqueur)
1 Tblsp. fresh lemon juice (optional)

Combine berries and nectar in a blender; process until smooth (about 1 minute). Add buttermilk; process until well blended. Add liqueur, pulse to mix. Add juice, if desired. Chill mixture 1 hour. Pour into freezer can of an ice-cream freezer; freeze according to manufacturer's instructions.

Serves 6 (serving size @ 3/4 cup)
Calories: 135

I served it yesterday with a delicious strawberry rhubarb pie that my neighbor made.

We have an early morning flight home today, 8 am, to London, with a 3 hour layover before our BA flight to Los Angeles. Not only do I never sleep on planes, but I never really sleep before an early airport trip, probably afraid I will sleep through and miss the flight. Tonight is no exception, so when the alarm rings at 5 am, I am already stepping into the shower. We are at the desk to check-up by 5:45 and a taxi comes 5 minutes later. Used as we are to morning traffic in Milan, and even though I do know that Linate is way closer to the city than Malpensa, it is only 10 minutes to the airport. Check in is short and easy, we get our boarding passes for both flights, go quickly through security and head for the BA lounge.

Which turns out to be fairly large and comfortable, so we are able to relax, have cappucini and croissants, while waiting for our flight. This smaller airport is becoming a plus over the larger Malpensa. The flight to London is short and relaxing, we are even served a decent English breakfast, tho I think I am more amused with the grilled tomato and mushrooms than is David. I have learned from experience that tea is far better on BA than is coffee.

Due to an early morning flight home on May 3, it is necessary to book a last night in Milan. I decide to try and get tickets for The Last Supper, because as many times as AA/BA as taken us to Italy through Milan, we have yet to do this. And it was not easy, as I could not get tickets through the official Cenacolo site; eventually I did pay a bit more and went through an agency. Small matter, we are going to see The Last Supper.

So here it is, our last morning in Venice, waking up to another quiet morning in Santa Croce. We have breakfast, pack, and leaving our bags, walk around the corner to to a Majer shop for some snacks for the train – cheese, spinach and broccoli puff pastries look good.

Then the final shlep, with all our bags, over one small bridge and a few steps to Pz. Roma, where we take a vaporetto one short stop to the train station. We are early, and there is no binario number yet for our train to Milan. We go to the coffee bar, and have an espresso. And then we see Shannon, who came to our hotel to help us move bags, but having said goodbye night before, I did not expect to see her in the morning. She and David have a prosecco for the road.

[Whee, blogging from a train, or at least it’s writing on a train, heading to Milan, perhaps I will really finish this blog].

May 1 is a holiday in many parts of Europe, Labor Day, Worker’s Day. Because it is a Tuesday, many have taken a 4 day weekend, and there are a lot of people in Venice today. Most restaurants are open, as for shops, it’s hit or miss. We are going to meet Shannon at 1pm and so have this morning free. It was nice to wake up to quiet in Santa Croce this morning. Our first thought is to go the Accademia museum, but in checking the hours, we find that May 1 is one of the 3 days of the year it is closed. Next trip.

Besides it is a beautiful day, clear skies, still a little cool. We decide to take the #2 vap around the Giudecca side and go to San Giorgio Maggiore, the little island off the tip of the Giudecca. But first we pass the cruise ship port and notice that there are 4 (sigh) ships in port, one huge, one large and two medium. There will be a lot of people in Venice today.

Sleeping tonight in Santa Croce

Packing up today to return the car and ourselves for a last few days in Venice with our friends Shannon and Colleen. Finally the Baggalini tote comes out to pack up with purchases too fragile to check through; so now we have another piece of luggage. David has an interesting time fitting the bottle from Poli distillery in his suitcase.

We meander back, which means not taking the A4, and find ourselves on part of the Brenta Canal, actually the part we did not see from the boat trip. The trip across the bridge is rather slow, it is the Monday before a holiday tomorrow and it seems like a long weekend for many. It is painfully slow getting into the Piazzale Rome garage to return the car, our instructions are to return the car to the 10th floor and drop the keys, since the office is also closed today. There is hardly a parking space left up there and we are lucky to find almost the last one, not sure what we would have if it had been full.

First, a word about blogging. I would like to think that I will follow this through to the end of our trip, that would be a first. Luckily I have had good internet access on this trip and we are not running ourselves as hard as we have in the past, so I have been able to indulge myself a bit this time (last summer, wifi on the river cruise was erratic and I never finished blogging). I hope to finish Bassano before we leave in the morning; I do not think we will have good internet the next few days, tho I can cut and paste, have before. Good intentions are what I fall back on.

Prosecco Road

So, Sunday in the region.We are going to take the car out for another spin today, the plan was to get up earlier, but here we are eating breakfast again at 9;30. Note to self - vacation, vacation.

Today's plan is to visit Follina and see the medieval abbey, and then to drive to Asolo for lunch and a walkabout. It is still on the warm side, but there is a haze, no blue skies today.

Oh today the sun is shining and the weather promises to be the best we have had to date, so out come the shorts for David, out come my cropped pants and the sandals. We sleep in, after all this is vacation; after breakfast in the hotel (I have mentioned in other trips how much I enjoy the hotel breakfast room and the cappucini that magically appear), we head out for our short walk to the city walls. It is market day in Bassano del Grappa.

And it is a large market, dry goods of all kinds, stands spread out over several squares - you can buy almost anything from children's socks to household goods. There is also a section for fresh flowers, fruits and vegetables - those mounds of white asparagus still amaze me. We walk to the bridge again, get some better shots and revisit the grappa distillery to figure out just how this tasting thing goes. We taste a few grappas, and I buy an asparagus plate to take home - Bassano is known for its Majolica pottery. Looks like I will be carrying the Baggolini shopping bag onto the plane after all. And David has treated himself to a bottle of grappa.

Moving day, and while we have told the car rental agency that we would be there at 10 am, somehow packing up a small apartment takes more time than a hotel room - we have spread out a little, I guess. And we need to doublecheck the trash, the dishes, make last pot or two of espresso, get in and out of the vertical bathroom one last time, all this takes time. Finally we are packed, down stairs, over the bridge and one the vaporetto for the ride up the cana to Piazzale Roma where the car agencies are.

Fiat

And yet, we find the door locked. David calls and the agent is in the car garage since we were 30 minutes late. He will be there in 10. Fine. 10 turns into 20, but he does come and we do the paperwork and he says the shuttle will be here in 10 minutes. Shuttle? Apparently they house the cars off site in Mestre, because it costs too much to keep them overnight in the garage. Oh, and since the May 1 holiday next week is a Tuesday, they are taking a 4 day holiday, just toss the keys in the door on Monday. Fine, the shuttle arrives, we drive to Mestre and trade the vaporetto in on a Fiat.

This is the last day of Venice, Part 1. Tomorrow we are going to Bassano del Grappo for 3 days, and even though we are coming back to Venice to meet our friends Shannon and Colleen, we have no idea what we will be doing on the Shannon Essa Guided Tour. So we are going to get a few things on "our" list done today.

Interior of Salute Church

One of the nice things about staying in an apartment is not having to get dressed and down to a breakfast room in the morning. It is also the down side since we have not been getting moving all that early. But you know, that's the vacation part of traveling. This morning we finally do get out the door, and first head into the Dorsoduro to a shop where we had spied a few items in the closed window last night.

Shopping accomplished we now finally pay a visit to the Salute church, the one we pass each and every time to leave or return home. It is magnificent both inside and out, we walk slowly around and admire the architecture.

One of my original plans for our week here in Venice was a day trip to Trieste, a city that has intrigued me for awhile. So I did some research, printed out the usual, and packed it along. I did not make train reservations, and that ended up to be a good thing, since somewhere along this week, Trieste became less of a good idea. Oh, it's still on my list, but the weather has been iffy, my back equally so and the idea of a 2+ hour regional train ride each way became less attractive. And there is so much more still to do here in seductive Venice.

It turned out to be a nice morning, weather wise and we decide to go to Burano for the ride, a seaside lunch and to see the Lace Museum, yes, it's on our card.

We wake up to rain this morning, our early morning to meet our tour. The travel raingear is going to be put to use. We are meeting the group in front of the St. Pieta church, which is called the St. Pieta Pier, so we take the vaporetto across to St. Mark's Square and walk down to the pier - 20 wet people speaking various languages who all look a little lost. Our guide shows up, as does the boat, and off we go. We will not be sitting on the top deck on this trip, but the boat is quite comfortable, has a coffee bar, and our guide gives us a very thorough history of the Venetian lagoon as we cross to the Brenta Canal.

We are doing the 1/2 day tour, 2 villas and lunch, in part because the whole day just seemed so long, and would get us back to Venice close to 8pm. Our first stop, in the rain, is the Villa Foscari-Malcontenta, the one true Palladian as our guide says. Beautiful frescoes, only the ground floor is open to the public, the Foscari family using the rest as a private residence.

This morning we decide to take the vaporetto to the Rialto Market; the spring market is smaller than the summer one it seems to us, but since it is not a fish day, maybe it's just in our heads. There are lovely vegetables, like radicchio, white asparagus, small and large artichokes; the vendors are trimming them, and I see artichoke bottoms are also being sold. We buy a small carton of wild strawberries for a snack while we walk.

After the market we meander the streets vaguely in the direction of Ca'Rezzonico, which I realize puts me very close to the fictional home of one Guido Brunetti (too bad the book and maps are not with me). We stop for a coffee in Campo San Polo, and check our map. Right direction, almost time for lunch

Waking up in Venice on Sunday morning to birds and church bells, this corner of the Dorsoduro is very quiet. David is sleeping in so I have time to blog and post pictures. Finally he's up since he has the Bialetti skills and there is coffee. The weather is iffy, but we decide to take the umbrellas and head to Murano. The vaporetto linea 1 takes us from Salute across to St. Mark's where we get an express to Murano. When we get there we decide to find the Glass Museum since it is one of the hits on our Venice Card. That is one amazing collection of glass.

Today we are taking the train from Verona to Venice. If I have learned anything from our travel years, I know understand that a travel day can mean you are neither here nor there, and should not expect to do a lot of touring. Understanding that, you can have a very good day nonetheless.

After one last fine breakfast at the Hotel Accademia we return to our lovely room and pack it all up. We still have a few hours before our short train ride to Venice, so we leave our bags with the desk, and take a walk to Piazza Bra and the Roman Arena. Which is open today so we are finally able to go in and look around. The stage is being set for the opera season, but that actually gives us an idea of both then and now. After this, we decide that breakfast was late enough that we may not need lunch today, so with our remaining time in Verona we stroll the Via Mazzini with the Saturday shopping passagiata, do some shopping ourselves, only looking in the Gucci windows, and end up with a late morning glass of vino back on the Piazza delle Erbe.

Padua

I cannot tell you how thrilled I was to wake up to no rain this morning, rain being something I could do without on our train day to Padua, also with the walking we had planned. We did stuff the umbrellas and rain gear into a tote just in case, and after another nice breakfast at our hotel, set off for the adventure. We walked down Via Mazzini, home to some chi-chi shops, to Piazza Bra and took the bus to the train station. The bus would not accept our coins and 3 elder Italians told us to buy our tickets at the tabicherria, which we did the rest of the day. While David bought our train tickets, I bought our return bus tickets.