Brendola

 

Brendola is an adorable little town in Veneto (our region). My Italian teacher told me about it and so we ventured out there the other day. There is a magnificent church that was started, but never finished (due to World War 1). It is amazing to see all of the work that must have gone into it by hand - especially during pre- "construction truck" times. It is beautiful! We were on the lookout for lunch while we were there (usually, I have researched a place that has good reviews, but not this time - we just took our chances). It was such a funny experience. We saw a sign for a pizza place and saw tons of workers parking and going in, as it had just opened. It is funny because between riposo (which is Italian Siesta) and covid, you have to be quick and timely when it comes to finding things open. Anyway... we walk in thinking that we are going to be ordering pizza, but we are quickly put at a table and the waitress speaks absolutely no English. Even though I am the one taking Italian lessons, Bryan and Mia were the ones to figure out what was going on. Even though it clearly said Pizza on the sign - no pizza was being served and no menus were available They had one lunch special and the restaurant became packed with locals within minutes of opening (we were lucky to get a table). It was a full course meal with pasta, salad, chicken, bread, wine, water, and coffee. Delicious! It was so funny because as we were leaving, we noticed that the parking lot was full of big trucks (I guess it must be a favorite among the truck drivers too!) Anyway.. another fun and funny experience to add to the books :-)

The church that was never finished has such an interesting story...

It has become a danger with falling stones, so they had it sectioned off...

Truly amazing to think that this was built by hand back in the day...

You can see the tree growing out of the top right :-)

Brendola

Such pretty views!

Vineyards are everywhere!

Adorable little car looking out over the town...

Unfinished

really cool!

And at the top of the hill, a beautiful finished church

So pretty!

A trattoria in Italy is a usually a "mom and pop" restaurant. By the sign, we totally thought that we would be having pizza for lunch :-)

For starters, they served Bread and then "Bigoli"(which is basically really fat spaghetti), and wine/water

Chicken was up next - (Bryan and Mia got homemade fries too)

And then salad, followed by coffee

And as you can see - all of the truckers had rolled in for lunch - hilarious! On a funny side note - we still aren't quite sure about the bathroom situation - there was only one bathroom, with 2 doors in it. One said signore (with an e) and the other said signori (with an i). I know that signora (with an a) is for women, but there was no signora available. I think it was supposed to be funny - one bathroom door said "Men" and one bathroom door said "gentlemen" (I might totally be wrong though). At least it was super clean - so funny!