Our first stop was Verdiana, our bed and breakfast for the next three days. It was nestled in the beautiful foothills of the Italian Alps.  Everything was so green and lush – it felt like May in Iowa!

We chose Verdiana because it was close to Chiampo, the town where my grandpa’s father was from. We spent an afternoon driving to the city (and enjoying the lovely drive!) and walking around.  It’s not a great photo, but you can see Chiampo peeking above the trees.  The city is in a valley with a river running through it.

Chiampo was bigger and more industrial than I imagined. I would love to have seen it 100 years ago when my great-grandfather left to come to America! And as it turns out, Chilese (my mom’s maiden name) is a pretty common name in these parts. The owners of our Bed and Breakfast know a few and were excited to learn that I was a Chilese!

We love a simple supper of bread, cheese, meat, fruit and wine. And what a beautiful setting our bed and breakfast provided!

The next day we spent the whole day in Venice. We loved it!  It’s so unique – no cars, just boats and a lot of walking.  The architecture was quite different from other cities we’ve been to, as well.  The whole experience was great and we all said we’d like to go back to Venice.

The girls thought it was so fun to take a ‘bus’ around town that was really a boat. I thought it was pretty fun, too. 🙂  The water was quite busy at times but traffic flow seemed pretty smooth.  We really enjoyed standing on bridges and watching the boats coming and going.

Everyone thinks of the canals when they think of Venice. But what about the incredible architecture?  This building, the Procuratie Vecchie, flanks the north side of the Piazza San Marco.  It was built in the early 1500s as homes and offices for state officials when Venice was its own republic.

On Friday, we left the foothills and drove to the mountains. Our guest house was in Shenna, about a 3 hour drive from our B&B. It was a beautiful drive and an incredible valley. This whole region, South Tyrol (or Sudtirol), is huge apple country. In fact, the apples we eat here in Malta are from the Sudtirol region.  This is the view from our guest house, the Krebishof.

Krebishof is a working farm. They milk about 15 cows and have about twice as many out in pasture. The father/son duo also have some 14,000 apple trees and several hundred grape vines. The mom/daughter-in-law duo run the guesthouse. Oh – and they have adorable little bunnies! 🙂

We really enjoyed exploring the area. There were a couple impressive castles and although we did not tour either one, we had fun imagining what life was like when they were built hundreds of years ago.

Merano is the largest city in this area and the whole valley is very German. In fact, the area wasn’t a part of Italy until after WWI when the current borders were created. Thus, the majority of people speak German, the food is mostly German and the houses are all named something-hof (and look quite Bavarian, too!).

We spent a couple hours one afternoon at the Trauttmansdorff Castle’s amazing botanical gardens.  It was one of the best gardens I’ve been to.  The girls, despite their complaints about going, really enjoyed it.  There was so much to do and see, and it appealed to all ages.

We tried to fly out of Bergamo on Monday but all the flights were cancelled and we had to stay the night in a hotel. The next day, we had to drive to Turin to fly home. The girls made the best of the situation by setting up a toiletries store in our hotel suite. Good thing because I needed to stock up after being in the airport all day!