Backroads always tends to build their hotel selections from great to best. And this trip did not disappoint! The Meneghetti Hotel is something special. Big huge rooms with dining rooms, living rooms, outdoor patios (some with pools), large bedrooms and bathrooms with vaulted ceiling and beams and high grade wood work and art throughout. The grounds are surrounded by white gravel roads, pebbles for walkways, open air lobbies and bars with lots of seating inside and outside on a variety of verandas. This property had a beach club about a mile from the hotel that had exclusive access to a bay on the Adriatic with covered seating under large trees, umbrellas, sun couches, bean bag seating and a walkway into the sea (the beaches were made of small smooth stones). The sea was super salty (buoyant) and pretty chilly water. Back at the property there was an outdoor pool, an indoor pool, a salt pool (spa), a cold plunge and a variety of saunas. You could rent mountain bikes, paddle boards and a variety of other things or just walk through the vegetable gardens, the vineyard or a variety of trails into the countryside. This place was pretty great. I always love it when water and soft drinks from the minibar are included with the rate of the room too – hotels: let’s find a way to make this a thing!
Did we learn from our last Backroads trip when we vowed to always stay extra nights at the last place we stay? Nope. But we should have as this would have been an incredible place to hang for another day or two. Next trip, we take one day off of the front of the trip and add it to the end of the trip and stay at the last hotel organized by Backroads. This is a must-do.
Today a short riding day – somewhere between 24-30 miles to lunch at another farmhouse (never gets old) where the local owner served a variety of alcohols that were too high test for my liking but others said they were quite good. They all tasted like NyQuil to me. More pasta, meats, cheeses, salads and a nice dessert with coffee. The cheeses at this stop were the best of the trip. Super fresh and salty varieties – very yummy. The morning had a tour of a small batch olive oil producer (2,500 olive trees that were up to 500 years old!) where we learned how they make olive oil and also got to taste their four varieties. Prior to the lunch stop we largely backtracked my extra miles from yesterday and rode two pretty punchy 5-6 minute climbs, one to the “Schnapps Stop” where Janna our third and local guide serve peach and blueberry Schnapps with peaches and other snacks. It was nice rolling almost every mile with a larger group of 8-10 folks today. The norm is more like 2-6 people in a group with re-grouping at various snack stops.
I don’t think I shared a lot about our Olive Oil tour at Grubic. We learned:
- There are olive trees in this region that are over 1500 years old!
- Harvest season is from late September to the beginning of November
- All olives harvested are hand-picked by the locals – it’s a celebration of their town where they serve community meals, picnic on breaks and work together to build a product the town is proud of creating.
- All olives picked each day are fully processed into oil by days end. Picking lasts from 8-4 each day and processing typically runs 10am-7pm.
- Olive oil should never be purchased in large amounts.
- Olive oil should never be purchased in anything but glass (preferable) or tin
- Much of the world’s mass-produced olive oil is a mix and not pure olive oil.
- Oil quality is felt on the top of your throat with a small tingling sensation.
- Olive oil is best used for drizzling – most of the good olive oil has a smoke point that is too low for good frying – if you use it in a pan, use it quickly and at lower temperatures.
- Our guide especially likes certain olive oils in ice cream and on desserts – interesting but maybe not for me.
After the tour we rode as a group to lunch and then after lunch some rode to the sea for a boat trip while others (Cindy and I) opted for a cab back to hotel to spend more time at the property. We sat by the ocean and dozed and read and hung out with Alex and Tracy who opted out of riding altogether (they like this game plan at least once each Backroads trip) to spend maximum time relaxing at the hotel.
The trip ended with a reception and dinner at this hotel. These are always fun nights – some reminiscing, some planning for what’s next, some gratitude to our guides and a little sadness for it having gone by so quickly. The dinner was unreal. I had beet risotto with blue cheese sauce – unreal! Dessert was a cream with sorbet and raspberry jam. Everything was grown on the premises including the wine which flowed throughout the evening. It was a great trip with great people and makes you value the time spent with others in community. Next trip? Dolomites? Swiss Alps? Denmark? Who’s to say except there will be another.
On Day 9, Cindy and I woke to enjoy one more great Meneghetti breakfast and a little more time with our friends before getting into the bus for the 2-3 hour ride to Trieste where everyone would scatter. For me and Cindy, in Trieste we hopped a 2 hour train ride to Venice and a 20 minute cab to a hotel within proximity of both the airport and the island of Old Venice. We took a quick turn at the Four Points Sheraton to quickly drop bags and then hop a local bus to the old Venice. It took about 25 minutes to get there. Once in Venice we wandered a quick large circle from one piazza to another over the various canals and such until we found a restaurant that looked like it would offer prime people watching and decent food. Except when we sat down we realized that there was no pizza and we both wanted a little pizza. Friday night is pizza night, right? We topped that off with one more gelato and a little more walking before having seen enough of the old world Venice. My two observations: Venice had a Myrtle Beach feel to it – lots of very bright souvenir shops selling junk and the place was a bit overrun with cruise ship tourists. Just too many people wandering aimlessly. All for people wanting to get a view of this great city, but unloading 5000+ people x the number of boats in port is frankly just hard to handle in small spaces.
Tomorrow we leave at 5:30am Venice time (12:30pm EST) for the Marco Polo Airport in Venice where we fly to London then to Charlotte and then I’ll drive to Sanford to meet Charlie for his soccer weekend and if I’m lucky, I’ll get there in time to catch some of the 5pm game. Big day ahead.
suttonscoop 