Buongiorno Soave

Monday was our first day trip, which was awesome. Despite everything being closed (Mondays in Italy) and a but if overcast skies, the trip was great. Soave is a small town just outside of Verona where Claudio our director teaches.  One thing about Claudio that you must know is that in addition to being sort of a goofy father to all of us he has BFFs everywhere. Literally everywhere we go he sees someone and then there's hugs and kisses etc. Anyways, Soave is most famous for it's white wine. The landscape is beautiful. It is very hilly and covered in wine vineyards. For example: ( just found out I can put photos on here yes!!!)

The first thing we did is stop at one of Claudio's bffs, this amazing ceramic artist. We literally walked into his studio which had gorgeous pieces.  The artist uses an Islamic technique that dates back centuries. He  cooks the pieces at least three times in the kiln and creates a chemical reaction (something with carbon) that creates a certain color then overlays it with copper or gold. He created a plate (painted) in front of us in literally 5 minutes with unbelievable detail. (by the way if you want to see this guy's art his name is Michelangelo Marchi) he sells his pieces for $500 to the thousands in galleries in New York. After watching him create a plate we got to paint on plates using squirt bottles. (really fun but we got the floor really dirty) He then sold us some of his pieces. I literally wanted to take the biggest thing I could find but practically that would not get home very easily but I chose a small bowl (he gave us a really good price) 

The next thing we did was visit the Soave castle. Although Soave is a small town there is a massive castle. We couldn't go inside because it was closed, but we walked on a path all around it. I saw my first pomegranate tree which was really exciting. The above picture is actually from the outside of the castle so we got a great view. 

After wondering around the small town a bit we met up with Claudio for "Soave Vs" all we knew about this was that it was supposed to be "good food and drinks" what we didn't realize was that it was a wine tasting/food sampling festival (yum!) We each got our own wine glass (i accidentally wrote whine first hey 203 :) ) and our own plate. We got a pamphlet with these little tabs that had different names on them. The names were for the different foods. We would give them the little paper and then get the food. Eliminating all of the ham/pork related things I still stuffed myself (it was all so good) probably my favorites were polenta with some sort of beef (almost like brisket on top), really yummy cheese and olive oil that was to die for.  There were also 40 different wine vendors, all from Soave so all white wine ( what I like) I tried only 4 because I was unbelievably full. The most ridiculous was the dessert wine. It is the most alcoholic and the sweetest, too sweet for me (weird I know) it was literally like a syrup so kind of gross. Probably the weirdest/funniest thing there was this little fountain that we thought was for decoration, until we saw people cleaning their glasses and drinking from it.  (see picture) After the long day we went home exhausted, but I can't wait for our trip with Claudio this weekend to Lake Garda!