Treviso for the Best Gelato

Inside the Duomo...

I was really thankful to meet up and stay with family. My aunt was on a work transfer from the US for six months and I made it in time to stay with her and my uncle the last week they were in Italy. Since I arrived in Italy, my allergies had been going absolutely crazy and I’m fairly sure Torino made me sick. It was really great timing to be staying in an apartment with family to battle that. Treviso is a cool town north of Venice. I spent most of my time hanging out with my uncle during the days. He showed me around the city, we got lost a few times… even though he had been living there for six months! You can’t fault him though, the roads aren’t on a grid so making a left turn could really be a complete 180 as the street bends back to where you just were (So cool...). I saw a couple sites in Treviso that struck particular attention to not only me, but I think most tourists. The Duomo is obvious as it stands tall in the city and has much history within its walls. Another is the frescas that randomly dot the city walls. It's so cool to be walking down a street, look to a wall that has no real importance and see a little mural to brighten your day. The last is a fountain hidden away nestled back into the side streets of a few shops right in the middle of the city. I found out that the fountain at one time was used to symbolize the changing of the town mayor. When a new mayor is elected, for three days the fountain would pour red and white wine in his honor. That’s so cool!

I told you it was cool!

While in Treviso, I was also able to visit my first Italian beach. We were provided a tip to avoid Jesolo, which is where most of the tourists go, and visit Paneta instead. When we arrived, thanks to some spiffy navigation skills by my aunt, we could tell immediately that there were very little, if any, tourists. There were no rows of umbrellas, no Hawaiian shirts, lots of men in Speedos that shouldn’t be, and some very dark tans.  It was a bit windy, but warm, perfect weather for having a few beers. We spent some time people watching. Of particular interest was a couple at the water’s edge. The female was apparently trying to model for her boyfriend who had a camera. She was prancing around splashing water on herself and jumping about trying to be sexy like a Victoria’s Secret model or something. I’ll have you know that nothing she was doing made her look sexy, quite the opposite in fact. We couldn’t help containing our laughter and I have no doubt it was obvious to those around us.  It was a solid 20 minutes of this behavior from the lass before she went back to her towel. We half expected her to start rolling around in the sand, but she disappointed.

Chillaxin'...

The Italian highlight of my trip was enjoying the gelato experience. Since arriving in Italy, I was eating gelato every single day. It was all very good, or so I thought. My aunt and uncle took me to a gelateria in Treviso called Ill Vecchio. It wasn’t until putting my lips to the taste of their ice cream did I realize what real gelato tasted like. By far the best I think I’ll ever have. They use all organic fruits and milk in their recipes and make it fresh every day. The family that owns it, The Bigazzi’s, is very nice and we struck up a conversation with them the first time I went in. It was hilarious because only their son spoke any English, but we ended up spending 3 hours in the gelateria that night talking. By the end of it, they had been invited to Texas (Where my aunt and uncle live) and we had been invited to a dinner at their house. Apparently, to invite a stranger into your home is extremely rare for an Italian family to do and considered an honor. As such, my aunt was very worried about the tradition and etiquette associated with the invitation. Luckily, we had a trial run with a co-worker of hers that wanted to have a goodbye dinner for her. We asked him all kinds of questions and even did a little research on the internet; it was very serious business. All in all, we probably went completely overboard worrying, but everything turned out very lovely. We managed to make a good connection with The Bigazzi’s and I truly hope to see them again.

The week went by far too quickly and I was sad to see them go. I am grateful to have seen another part of my family in Europe. I’m sure they were getting stir crazy to be back in the States though. I can vouch that six months away from home is a long time. I left mine in July of 2010 to explore the world and I definitely miss the feeling of having a home to call my own.

2011 Europe - Treviso