Thiene and Bassano Italy

Andrea's High School

After our eventful two days in Cinque Terre, we arrived in Thiene (Andrea’s home town) late in the night around 10pm. We rode the train for around five hours and didn’t have the time to find any food between lunch and the time that our train left. Luckily Andrea and his parents had some sandwiches ready for us when we arrived. 

The next morning we slept in until after nine and slowly we all got ready. We spent the morning walking around the city centre of Andrea’s town and stopping for a coffee along the way. Andrea showed us all the “landmarks” of his town including his old high school and dentist office.

In the early afternoon we went back to his house to make lunch while Andrea went to the train station to pick up Francesco. Francesco (another friend from Tilburg) flew from the south of Italy to spend the week with us. We stayed for a couple hours eating and talking before leaving for a neighboring town, Bassano.

 

We had a mini road trip for a half hour to get to Bassano. Bassano is a small city that I had never heard of, but I was definitely glad we went. We stopped off at the famous wooden bridge for an amazing view of the mountains and river. We grabbed some gelato to eat while looking out at the water from the bridge. Afterwards we wandered into a small war museum hidden underneath a bar. Andrea had been before and knew that all you had to do was go into the bar and ask to see the museum.

 We took a walk along the river and ended up sitting and talking on the riverbank for over an hour. Realizing that it was getting late we decided to walk back towards the bridge in the direction of our car. We stopped once again on the bridge so everyone could try mezzo-mezzo a drink made by the locals.

We drove back home to Thiene just in time for homemade lasagna from Andrea’s parents. We sat for dinner for a couple hours, with conversations happening in both English and Italian. After dinner we drove to a close neighboring town for what Andrea called a “festival”. Many young people had gathered to listen to a band and have a few drinks outdoors. Strangely enough, the band came from Brooklyn New York. How they ended up in Thiene I’m not sure.