Nove, Italy

The annual spouses' club board trip to Nove, Italy was at the end of August! I visited with the club two years ago and was excited to visit again for some camaraderie and shopping. We left bright and early to caravan down.

We made one pit stop for lunch at a restaurant overlooking a beautiful lake. Once we arrived at Le Nove hotel and got settled, we immediately visited a couple local pottery shops. The first one was Edelweiss which has so many cute pieces. 

Another Nove favorite is the "chicken man" who offers a variety of chicken pitchers. I don't remember the story behind them, but there is a story. They come in several sizes with many different designs so everyone is sure to find one that suits them. Since my last visit, he had moved locations to the town center across from the tower. 

A new-to-me shop was the pewter store. I had LOW expectations for this shop thinking that it would be filled with a bunch of old people stuff. I was pleasantly surprised by the interesting variety of items. They must work with the local bases often because we found a ton of US military items like these decanters. 

I splurged for a single room on this trip and it was so worth it! This is the view from my room. Le Nove is a surprisingly modern hotel with air conditioning and a nice breakfast spread.

You cannot visit Italy without some wine tasting! Two of the ladies set up a visit to one of their favorite wine producers--Riva Granda. We planned to just stop and pick up some cases of wine, but they treated us to some snacks and a little tour of their vineyard. 

On our second evening in town we visited nearby Bassano del Grappa to walk around before heading to dinner at a nearby winery.

Our Trips & Tours chair set up a wine tasting at this local winery. I opted to be a DD for the night, so I did not have a chance to sample any of their wines, but the estate was lovely! It is owned by sisters; supporting a female owned company felt really good. 

Aside from pottery shopping, the big draw was a huge flohmarkt (flea market) in a nearby town. This market happens on the last Sunday of the month. When I say it's huge, I am not exaggerating. We spent hours walking around, haggling and enjoying gelato and did not even see all the booths. 

Two years ago when I visited Nove, a friend and I had hoped to visit the inside of the church that is located near the flohmarkt, but ran out of time. This year I made a point to check it out. 

I am not a big spender and came home with only a few treasurers from the weekend, but am really happy with all of them. I was extra excited to find the tiny greyhound figurine to gift to Charles.