As a celebration of finishing the painting of the kitchen (and hoping it's the right paint that won't peel or scratch off), we head off to a place that has dinosaur footsteps. Of course we do, doesn't everyone? A three hour drive and we're in Rovereto, a medieval town on the Adige River. We arrive at lunch and walk to Ristorante La Terrazza sul Leno overlooking the water and have Eggplant parmigiana and the daughter has a ricotta, gorgonzola and njuda (a spicy sausage paste) calzone. It's folded over one end and therein lies the gorgonzola.
Then we go to a Futurist gallery, Casa d'Arte Futurista Depero. The Futurists started as a movement of speed, youth and dynamism in the early 20th century. It's in an old medieval palace and we go because when you stay at the hotels here they give you a card that allows you to go to the galleries and museums free of charge. But we love it, it's beautifully presented and Depero's work is stunning.
We walk back through the tiny car free streets of gelato coloured buildings. It's quiet and non touristy.
Dinner is terrible (which is rare in Italy!) so won't go into that but breakfast is served in a frescoed room which makes up for everything. And then we're off to Lavini di Marco to see dinosaur foot prints dating back to 200 million years ago and is the largest collection in Italy. Some of the footsteps belong to 5-10 metre long herbivores. We wind up into the hills and the road gets narrower and narrower and I ask the daughter how far it is and she replies: Not far. Then we reach a car park and we begin the dinosaur walk. I could have sworn she said it wasn't far from the car park but almost half an hour later, we seem to be high up in a wasteland and finally there is the sign: Orme di dinosauri. Only another climb up a slippery slope and suddenly there they are and may I say, it was worth the walk and also the perfect home schooling excursion.
This mountaintop was once a mud plain that became limestone and preserved the footsteps. The air is crisp and clear and the sun is out for us to take a photo of Rovereto below and other little towns scattered within the hills.
We return to go to the Science Museum (free) which is an extension of our dinosaur walk. It's a beautifully presented museum showcasing the history of the town going back to prehistoric times. That night the daughter researches a a fantastic restaurant preceded by a bar called La Crypta which was fantastic! We celebrated the dinosaurus moment with a Negroni the size of a very small dinosaur but large nonetheless. It came with olives, peanuts, chips and pineapple and with every sip, the daughter and I told tales to each other unheard of before. Needless to say, it was the best Negroni ever.
And then the restaurant was also in a crypt like structure where waiters were helpful and friendly and the food presented beautifully. I had gialleti (tiny hillside mushrooms), polenta and a thick cheese of the region that they fry. We made up for last night's dismal affair.
And then we went to Trento and there we fell in love. Once we got over the anxiety of finding a carpark for our car (you can't take cars into these old cities) and finding the hotel, we dropped off our bags and headed into the old centre. Nearly all the buildings had frescoes! And looking down, the streets were paved in ammonite stone both cream and red. Even the church walls were made of it and if you looked closely enough, ammonite shells hidden within the whorls of the stone. We didn't know where to look.
There was a huge market underway in the square with plants, food, clothes in all the little streets off the piazza and bus loads of school kids and older people doing tours of the church and later the castle. We went into the beautiful church that was sparse compared to many we've seen but majestic.
There were proper shops (Auronzo is a small town with very few stores) and we got caught up in a bit of retail therapy (Bath and Body Works! A huge one!) and then I went off to the castle leaving the daughter to shop and as I headed there, I went past the most beautiful cafe/bar, La Vie en Rose and I arranged to meet the daughter there after her shopping spree.
Castello del Buonconsiglio, built early in the 13th century as a garrison and transformed over the centuries into a beautiful palace, is incredible and huge! It's a museum as well with amazing prehistoric, Roman and Gothic finds. Just when you think it's finished it meanders into another set of magnificently decorated rooms. There's even a collection of beautiful old porcelain stoves for heating the huge rooms.
And then towards the end there's the Eagle Tower with some of the most important Gothic style frescoes depicting the seasons and what the rich and the peasants got up to and plus there is a fresco of snow, the first in medieval history (Sorry, forgot to take the photo of that one).
Ready for a drink, I meet the daughter at the bar that is all green and red and gilt laden, with paintings on the roof as well as the wall. We order drinks and they come with a platter of prosciutto and cheese and thin crispy bread and then a young boy in a suit wanders in, sandshoes on his feet and sits at the piano in the corner and we are serenaded.
We stay as long as we can, no one hurries anyone, people sit for ages over one drink. It's is aperitivo hour and it is sacred.
Finally moving on, we hear a band playing and wander down to check it out and then end up staying for half an hour. I looked to see if there was somewhere to leave money but there was nothing, they were playing for the love of it. It was fabulous! Haunting, romantic and crazy and the drummer...if only I'd been younger. But I digress. I think in those musical interludes, the daughter and I decided that we might just want to stay here forever.
But there's more. The daughter found Forsterbrau Trento, a restaurant and beer house in a beautiful palazzo. The restaurant has been in operation since 1906 and internally there are beautiful timber details and ceramic sculptures. We sit upstairs surrounded by more frescoes and they bring us tiny glasses of beer and a basket of huge pretzels with a honey mustard and a gherkin mayonnaise to dip them in. I ordered fish ravioli with white asparagus on the side and a green asparagus sauce. Delicious.
We wander back at nine and the streets on a Thursday night are full of people just getting started, no cars, just people on bikes, people at bars. People enjoying the spring evening.
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