Asolo & The Rocca

For those of you who have children, do you sometimes wonder why they have such bad attitudes? We literally give them the world & they appreciate nothing. I'm exaggerating, of course. But yesterday we decided to take a trip to the small hillside town of Asolo (seen down below in the photo) and the fortress on the hill, The Rocca (where Ellie is standing in the photo). This town is only a 40 minute drive from Treviso, less than the distance from Palo Alto to Santa Cruz, a drive we used to do ALL THE TIME. However, the kids seem to just want to stay in the house all the time now. If we stay in the house, we might as well be in California. I think we should get out & see this new land of ours. So, out we went.

There was so much complaining on the way, I wondered if it would be possible to enjoy ourselves at all. But once we arrived, things seemed better. We walked through the narrow streets of Asolo and up 267 steps to the fortress above. The kids barely complained at all during this part of the trip & it was the most difficult physically. Once at the top, there was an amazing view. I had been here once in November, with my hiking group, but the Rocca was closed that day & I really wanted the rest of the family to see it. The pathway & steps were lined with olive trees. In November I got to see some old Italian men harvesting the olives. Inside the Rocca, there was a medieval looking wooden staircase/scaffolding to allow us to the top of the fortress wall. The whole thing was a little scary - luckily none of us have a terrible fear of heights. Ander was safe in a backpack. Ellie was a little worried. We stayed away from the edge.

After the hike, we ate a simple but very authentic meal at a little restaurant in the center of Asolo. It consisted of hearty bread, rustic salami, prosecco, polenta, and penne with sausage & treviso (a type of radicchio). Then, Justin & I got a coffee, & the kids had their first gelato in some time. Nobody complained on the way home, & our evening was pleasant. I think that with children it is easy to get into a rut no matter where you are, to stay home is the easy thing to do. But once we are all in the habit of going out & exploring the world, maybe there will be less resistance from the get go. It is especially difficult now that the children have so much free time (they were over-scheduled in Palo Alto), but if we do it together we can have a lot of fun!