We decided that as we had been out and about sightseeing every day so far, that we would have a mainly relaxing day by the pool.
After a leisurely breakfast we had to wait until the pool had finished its weekly cleaning cycle at 10am before we could get in. We reserved our sun beds and Bethany jumped straight in.
We stayed by the pool until lunchtime when we had a quick break to go to the supermarket, post office and wine shop.
Bethany had written her postcard to Nana and Papa earlier in the week but we had never passed an open post office. As we had to go out anyway we set off into Negrar. There wasn’t such a long queue in the post office but it still took 20 minutes to get two stamps.
After this we headed back to Enoteca Della Valpolicella in Fumane, where we had dinner on Tuesday, to buy some of the wine I had there. The sommelier was really pleased we had come back to buy bottles to take home. Bethany was amazed by how big the shop was. I then reminded her how thick the wine list has been.
We stopped at the supermarket to grab some bread rolls and a few snacks that Bethany wanted to take home with her. Once back at the agriturismo I made sandwiches and we ate them in the cool of our air-conditioned apartment. Bethany and I then hit the pool and sunloungers again. Michael preferred to stay in the cool listening to his book.
That was all we did until we went out for dinner at 8pm. A family at the agriturismo had recommended a pizzeria just down the road so we booked a table there. They had said if you got there at 7pm it shouldn’t be a problem but anytime after 7:30pm usually meant no tables left. According to Trip Advisor the restaurant was big and we couldn’t understand how being in the middle of nowhere it could be so busy. The road in was very narrow and we commented on how we wouldn’t like to meet anyone coming in the other direction. When we arrived and saw people directing us to our parking space and saw the size of the car park it gave us an idea of how busy it might get.
We were shown to our table and given English menus. We had a great view across the valley and the sun was starting to set.
Our waiter arrived with complimentary Aperol Spritz – shame Michael doesn’t like it. Bethany tried her non-alcoholic version and donated it to me too.
We ordered our food and watched the sun set.
After the sun went down the temperature thankfully dropped a degree or two before our food arrived. Bethany and Michael both ordered steak and I went for a pizza.
There was lots of ‘mmmm’ noises as we all tucked in. The restaurant had got very busy by this point and people were being turned away without reservations.
As it was our last night, desserts were definitely required. I chose the semifreddo and the other two ordered pannacotta.
Plates were cleared again and we got the bill. Even though we had seen everyone arriving I was still amazed at how full the car park was.
The guys directing us to park earlier in the evening had now become traffic controllers armed with two way radios. We had to wait until a car had driven up the road and then we were allowed out. This solved the mystery of what would happen if you met a car coming the other way – you wouldn’t. Great organisation.
As we didn’t get up to too much I’ll show you a bit more of our accommodation.
The agriturismo is a renovated 19th century farm house with 8 rooms, each sleeping between 3 and 5 people. It was opened in 2015 and is beautifully finished. The rooms are named after trees and the door plates made out of the wood from the tree.
1. Chestnut, 2. Cherry, 4. Olive, 5. Ash, 6. Poplar and our room 7. Oak. Our room was made up of a living room with sofa bed and kitchenette, bathroom and bedroom. All rooms were spacious and the bathroom had a large shower with two shower heads.
Outside there was also plenty of space – 10 parking spaces, outdoor eating areas, 2 kids swings, pool and hot tub surrounded by vineyards.
As well as grapes there were also fig and olive trees.
We bought some Canova wine to bring home with us and we received a bottle of their olive oil as a gift as we left.
We found our accommodation through http://www.agriturismo.it after a recommendation from a friend. I would definitely recommend the website and specifically Canova for future holidays.
Crouch Family On Tour 