October 3, 2019
Thursday 3rd October Treviso - Water Under The Bridge, Through the Town, Around the Town.
October 3 Thursday 12kms
Treviso - Water Under The Bridge, Through the Town, Around the Town.
Heavy rain overnight and a rather overcast morning, although it’s supposed to improve. We decide to spend the day exploring and book another night at Al Parco Storga. We’re learning much more about this region and those bordering it, and talking to our host Paola makes us aware that there’s plenty more to see. Names like Montebelluna are irresistible.
We cycle into Treviso Centro and enter through the Tomasso porta. It’s a city of narrow paved streets, beautiful little shops, impressively grand buildings and water- so much water. Water running alongside buildings in canals, water crashing noisily over weirs, water gushing out from beneath buildings. From the path around the walls we look down on the crystal clear waters of the River Sile which runs around over and through parts of the town.
| Heart | 1 | Comment | 0 | Link |
In the tourist office we collect some information about a cycle route along the Sile which could be an interesting way to Camping Rialto in Campalto, Venice. We also meet a NZ couple from Opotiki. He is Maori and has that understated kiwi sense of humour we’ve been missing. He’s very enthusiastic about the area and wants to return. He says that unfortunately, though he’s retired, they have to return home so that his wife can go back to work.
Treviso is charming. Many of the churches have been constructed from red brick and the architectural styles are Gothic, Venetian, Romanesque as well as several modern variations. We walk and cycle through small piazzas bordered by loggia, and there’s a busy fish market near a large water wheel which has been in existence for centuries.
We stop for a coffee at about lunchtime from a beautiful old stone building that looks like it might once have been a gatehouse on the walls. There are serious eaters inside. Lunch may occupy more of the middle of the day than some might deem necessary but there are serious conversations going on. Some Italian men of a certain age, affect a slightly wacky intellectual look- longish hair, cooky glasses and sometimes a suit, sometimes just shorts and tee shirt - often black. In the Czech Republic men of the same vintage would take on what I called ‘the poet look’. Clothing style was optional but the hair was long, even for baldies, and the mullet was ubiquitous.
We wait until the galleries we want to visit are open after lunch, then head for St Caterina and the Museo Civico. This includes exhibits from the Prehistoric and Roman history of Treviso. There are frescoes and paintings with emphasis on works from the local area. As there is an inauguration for the school year being held in the church part of the complex, we cannot see the Tomaso da Modena fresco there. We do go in to the back of the gigantic church. It’s bricked walls push skywards. We can see some of the fresco remnants and the wooden rafters.
The Bailo museum of modern art has a large collection by Arturo Martini, a Trevisian, famous for both sculpture and painting.
The man handing out leaflets for the literary festival in the gallery that evening, told us that he’d seen us earlier in the day, so we must have made some sort of an impression. ‘You always see someone twice,’ I tell him. I’ve noticed that this is often true for the traveller.
| Heart | 2 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Home, with a stop at the supermarket for the ingredients for a picnic dinner: grapes , cheese, cold spicy chicken, tomatoes, couscous mixed with pickled vegetables. We cycle back to Parco gaining glimpses of Venetian style mansions behind high walls and trees with gates bearing the ‘Attenti al Cane’ sign, often accompanied by loud barking.
Today's ride: 12 km (7 miles)
Total: 2,804 km (1,741 miles)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 3 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |