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We loved loved loved Treviso!
From the canals...
to the beautiful buildings...
the city walls
and some of the narrowest narrow alleys we've seen...
was, for us, the first perfect combination of charming Italian medieval city and "real" city. The entire historic core has restricted access to cars, so there are cyclists and pedestrians everywhere. It also has a university, and feels very prosperous. There were lots of funky restaurants, boutiques, and people out shopping day and night.
We saw a lot of stuff.
1. Churches
San Nicolo, which had a huge Jesus wading in the sea (this seems to be a theme in Treviso)
and a cycle of frescos of bishops (one of whom is wearing eyeglasses - the first known depiction of glasses in art.)
The Duomo, which is not so pretty from the front, but has some nice domes (and creepy rabbits) in the back
More glasses! (this is a statue of the bishop who's in the fresco with the glasses)
And Santa Lucia, which had a very lovely fresco of Veronica
2. Frescos
Not only did we see frescoes in the actual churches, but we went to the Civic Museum. It has the usual Roman junk, a very nice art gallery containing paintings from the region through the ages, and includes the deconsecrated church of Santa Caterina, which has two layers of frescoes! They include this nearly intact ceiling
And a series of frescoes which depict the life of Saint Ursula (murdered along with her 11,000 virgin friends and one Pope by the very Huns they were trying to convert!) These are not only beautiful, but they are very impressive in that they were saved from another church that was going to be demolished over 150 years ago, and are nearly intact.
Here she is convincing some of those virgins to head out on a boat with her.
Well, enough about ill-fated virgin martyrs. Treviso also has this lovely Fontana della Tetes.
which comes with its own group of surly teenage boys, and a constant stream of tourists taking classy pictures like this.
The best thing about this statue is that it used to squirt red and white wine when a new Venetian leader was chosen!
So what did we eat? Well, here Treviso did not serve us so well, unfortunately. Our first dinner was at the Osteria Odeon alla Colonna, which had a beautiful location along a canal, but meh food.
Pea soup (!) for E and a salad for me.
Followed by pasta carbonara for me
and pasta with meat sauce for Eric.
Besides the setting, the best part about the meal was watching this duck family try to negotiate the ferocious canal and settle down on the banks for the evening. They finally succeeded, with all eight chicks tucked under her.
The best meal we had was lunch. We went to a very old time sandwich shop, Hosteria dai Naneti. For E8 we had two sammies (bresaola and parmeggiano for E, coppa and sun-dried tomatoes for me) and a big bottle of seltzer.
Check out the size of that mortadella!
Our second dinner, at Trattoria la Columba was so awful that I can't bring myself to document it. It was unspeakably bad, although I wrote about it plenty on Trip Advisor.
Thank goodness there was, you guessed it, gelato to save the day!
First, Gelateria Romana della 1947. Believe this is a place that we also tried in Rome, when we visited my mother. Perhaps she can confirm?
E: hazelnut and cherry crunch
A: blueberry, lemon and sambuca and yogurt with walnuts
Then back to Romana to wash the taste of that terrible meal away!
A: coffee mascarpone with a dollop of whipped cream and a chocolate sauce filled cone
E: pistachio and chocolate chip
Romana was the winner, but didn't break the top three.
Overall, a lovely time was had in Treviso. We recommend it!
An early night, we have a big ride tomorrow.
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