Bassano del Grappa, passegiata, and the Alpini

This is the Veneto, our home province. Directly above the word, "above,"  and half-way up the province, is Bassano del Grappa. Paderno is 7 kilometers to its east, so Bassano is our local big city. We've ended up there regularly lately, and are very fond of this town.

Bassano street scene.

In Piazza Liberale, the lower of two main piazze.

Bassano is home to a macrobiotic food store where we can pick up organic dried beans, grains, great olive oil, tamari, and even more obscure stuff like miso (Patrick, you're containing your enthusiasm quite nicely). As noted in the previous posting, there's also at least one really good gelateria, but there are also handy places like a book store with English books, a department store with the whole bottom floor given over to yarn for knitting, and a little corner store with bulk spices and teas.

This place is called, "Specialita di Gamba," which is, it turns out, another idiom. 'Gamba' means 'leg.'  If someone is 'di gamba' at what they do, they are accomplished at it. If someone is 'di gamba,' they are clever. I cannot speculate about the Italians and body parts relative to their idioms, but I am encountering what appears to be a trend. At any rate, the mother, father, and son, the latter two of whom are pictured, run this clever seasonal specialty shop in Bassano and make all of the goods they sell. Which are; canned, olive-oil packed garlic and shallots and little onions, garlic paste, pepperoncini paste, garlic/pepperoncini/olive oil paste, and an anchovie/garlic/caper paste. Now, those of you who got our e-mails last time we were here may recall a remark about the blandness of local cuisine. We have to -sorry - eat our words. The pepperoncini pastes are hot. And folks add it to their spaghetti noodles and eat that as their sauce. Our apologies to all of Northeastern Italy. We misrepresented your spicey-quotient egregiously.

Above and beyond the shopping, however, Bassano is where it's at. The center of town is an old walled city perched high on a hill, overlooking the River Brenta. Every street is picturesque, the central piazzas are large and lend themselves to big markets, and the big markets happen often. People like us drive from surrounding villages and rural areas, park their cars at the base of the hill, ascend the stairs to the top, and head out to see and be seen. Every day. And especially on Sunday.

A pedestrian-only bridge over the Brenta. A lot of people watching happens here.

A view from the bridge, back toward the oldest part of the city, showing some of the old wall.

Either these two just got married or they were models for a photo shoot, but they got a hand as they walked the bridge. Their photographer shot several angles from along the bridge, and both the couple and the setting were gorgeous.

There is an age-old practice in Italy known as the passegiata, which literally means, 'stroll.' But the event itself is far beyond a simple perambulation. Folks dress up for it, take their spouse's arm, wash the kids' faces, and go check out the newest in fashion on the street. Bassano is the local spot for good passegiatta.

Folks heading to passegiatta. I especially like the older couple on the right. They're styling.

Bassano is also home for special markets, like last weekend's Organic Agriculture Market, and was the host city this year for the annual gathering of the Alpini.

Kids watching a puppeteer at the Organic Ag fair.

More of same audience, astutely combining gelato with their puppet-watching.

The Alpini are legendary here in the Dolomites. Apparently they are a branch of the Italian military, according to my Italian teacher. She didn't know if one is assigned into Alpini units or if one requests that service. At any rate, they are trained in mountain warfare. With a line of colossal Alps along one's northern border, and the rest of the nation dangling into the Mediterranean, both mountain fighters and marines become kind of critical. The Alpini were instrumental in both World Wars and were very active in this particular region. There is a huge monument to them on the pinnacle of Monte Grappa, and the mountains around here are riddled with tunnels and caves they used in defense of Italia.

Alpini are arranged by the regions in which they serve, and labeled according to nearby cities. They convene to whoop it up yearly, and whoop they do. There is a lot of beer consumed in the process, and there were apparently contests and a parade. Local groups cluster, wearing matching shirts. Every one of them wears the Tyrollean style felt hat with a feather and various medals and pins. It sure looked like they were having fun.

As a side note, for adult males to be seen in a city - especially on a Sunday - wearing jeans is really unusual. However, it seems to be almost required for the complete Alpini outfit.