Venezia con famiglia

Half an hour from Venice live the charming, hardworking Servas family of Alessandra and Angelo, and their 3 children Teresa, Cecilia and Francesco. Our train arrived late, past their bed time, but Alessandra picked us up at the Conigliano train station and drove us to their home on a hill overlooking the small town. Our comfortable, simple room was filled with 8 bunks, and we were invited to join their family for every meal. They share their lives with another family and several priests; the building and grounds are owned by the Catholic church.

Qui bella, la vista, la comida, y especialmente il pasticherie! Alessandra made excellent food for everybody - fresh baked bread and pizza, bolognaise and pasta... for our contribution, Mark made a spanish tortilla (a special kind of potatoe omlette), and we bought a special desert. You have to see an Italian pasticheria to believe how artful pastry can be. What a wonderful interchange, with the counter woman describing each cake in great detail, in Italiano, while we grinned and replied in Spanish; we didn't understand every word, but that didn't dim our enthusiasm at all. Finally we chose a gorgeous Tiramisu. As much as the children appreciated the cake, I think they prefered the strawberries we brought - "Fragoles!" they sighed, as if they were going to eat juicy bits of heaven.

We kissed them all goodbye as they set out for their work / school day, cleaned up after ourselves, and decended the hill to the train station, headed for that Italian jewel of a city, Venice.