Tuesday 16th of August

No breakfast in the house this morning, instead a drive into Feltre, the nearest town for a cappuccino and brioche.  The cafe was looking more like a Hungarian cake shop than a cafe but it all looked nice.

From the cafe we walked in to the centre of the town for me to see it was clearly market day.  The market stalls ran all the way up the main street and had the usual diverse stalls although I don't recall one selling trees before.

Get ya trees here

View up the street from the city wall

View down the street

Of course we managed to bump into Uncle Oscar again - he gets everywhere!  We soon headed away from the market and into the walled district.  It's an area I've been in a few times and it's quite interesting.  I can't recall the history but at some stage it was a wealthy offshoot of Venice but then after being taken over by another ruling party a lot of the writing and text etched in to the walls of the buildings has been removed by chipping away until you can't see the text.  It looks really strange.  Still there are several nicely decorated buildings still around and the narrow streets and stairways (half the town is on a hill) keep things interesting.

Chiara with the cane (dog)

We were sat here the other night listening to the singer & guitarist

A typically decorated property in the hilly/walled district

Chiara had to take the dog to the vet so I stayed in the town and had a little nosey around.

Old town bike shop, everything from kids bikes to Wilier

River fairly empty at the moment but clearly built for masses of water when the thaw occurs in spring 

Local optician doing ok for himself??? With Oakley's at €250 I'm not surprised!

Mountains, shops, river, industry...

After the dog got the all clear we made a quick stop to a shop I'd spotted while out riding.  I got the impression it was a bike clothing outlet store and on entering I was quickly proved correct.

This was the 2011/12 kit but there were imperfects as well, although mostly is S and XL sizes as usual

I didn't buy anything at the time but I'll be going back there soon with the bank card.  I turned my nose up initially when I saw the brand Sportful but then I remembered that my current Saxobank kit is Sportful and I find it the best kit I have (yes the shorts I prefer to the Rapha ones).  Spotted a nice softshell top for winter too and about 40% the cost of the Rapha one.

Lunch was a very thin and very nice battered and fried pork steak with salad followed by cheeses and bread, fruit and washed down with some left over Bourgogne vino.  Splendid.  A little later on I was given some grapes by the young girl next door.  I graciously accepted them and later was sat outside in the sun reading my book and picking them off one by one.  One of the young boys came up and I offered him a grape which he took and then another.  Then his older brother turned up (just as shy) and he took one too and then they decided to take them all so off they went with the remains of the bunch.  Ah easy come easy go....  Later though they did bring me some chocolate 'for when you're on the bike' although I think it might melt in 30C heat and in my back pocket.

Later in the evening I went with Chiara to Rocca where there is an artificial lake.  Her father and brother were fishing there.  We eventually found them and had a little walk around before taking an aperitivo at the albergo Parigi.  On the next table was a few oldies discussing the local area.  I could make out a little bit of it but it was apparently half in italian and half in dialect so I didn't stand much chance.  However Chiara understood it and was telling me that the guy was born in the village, the one that they swamped when they created the lake in the fifties - http://www.magicoveneto.it/Grappa/Corlo/FVCorlo.htm.  At one point also they decided to test one of the fireworks that they were preparing for the San Rocca festival that evening.  That woke a few people up!

Georgio and Enrico fishing 

Preparing the fireworks for the festival in the evening

Then it was back home for some minestra but no fish as they hadn't caught anything, some catching up on the blog from the Monte Grappa climb and then to Chiara's to chill out watching some Big Bang Theory, until the DVD stuck....

I thought it was going to be an early night but when I got back to the house Uncle Oscar was there and a few other visitors and as were bottles of grappa, limoncello and a coffee based liquor too.  So I indulged my first glass of grappa.  It was ok but personally I prefer the sweeter stuff so I washed it down with a limoncello.  I decided to confirm with Georgio that the Grappa mountain was linked with the drink and he assured me it was.  And then we got on to distillation techniques and various other topics. 75mins later.... the conversation ended.. I think I managed to get enough language practice that day!