January 1, 2014

The morning starts with the usual cappucino e pastri in the Nogherazza Trattoria.  We meet with Lee and Gary but Chuck is missing in action.  He and Lynne left before NYE to spend it with Andrea and his family and I believe a large time was had by all.

The day's plan is to visit Caprelle, which is the the small mountain city in the Dolomite mountains where the Nazis had imprisoned all the villagers in the small church.  The Nazis had planned to set the church on fire if  Howard Chappell would not allow the Nazi engineers to rebuild the bridges that Howard had blown up.  Howard responded by saying if one Italian partizane was harmed, no Nazi would leave Caprelle alive.  The Nazis responded in turn by surrendering.

Jack and Lee at the little church

A better photograph of the little church.  It’s being renovated.

It's a long drive on a windy, narrow road.  Jack had phoned Chuck who said he'd be over at 1:00 and the journey would begin.  In the meantime, Jack and I went for a small walk around Nogherazza.  It was cold, but clear.

The view from Nogherazza

When we returned, my stomach was twirly again and I elected to say at Nogherazza.  The rest of the party departed, and I departed to sleep.

Later they returned with good stories to tell.  We had a lovely dinner at Nogherazza, preceeded by roasted chestnuts previously bought at the Belluno market, and then a simple but most excellent pasta with a tomato-cream-rosemary-radiccio sauce.  This was our last dinner here at this wonderful place with such kind-hearted wonderful people.  The dinner was on the house.

Saying goodbye to one of the residents.

We are planning to amend our travel plans to eliminate Naples from our list.  This from the advice from our friend Chuck who says it's nothing more than a thieves den.  I will keep you posted.