Just to reiterate about the best-laid plans going awry, my original plan was as follows: December 19th Ana arrives in the late afternoon and is home in time for dinner and bed. December 20th, we explore Vicenza. December 21st, Venice in the morning until Meghan arrives. December 22nd, pick up CJ and Kamryn, then hang out in Torri. December 23rd, Marostica and Nove. December 24th, Verona and Christmas festivities. December 25th, rest up before our trip to Rome. December 26th - 27th Rome. December 28th recovery from Rome and prep for Ana's return trip. Seems pretty put together, doesn't it? Oh never, never plan like that!
Since I miscalculated day one of the vacation, we scrapped Vicenza and otherwise continued with the plan. Meghan and I went to pick up CJ and Kamryn while Rob, Felix and Ana spent some quality bonding time at home. On our way there, true to form, there was horrendous traffic on the autostrada. Normally when that happens to me, I don't see the cause, I just sit in stop and go traffic for half an hour or so and it suddenly clears up. This time, we got to see it... pretty ugly wreck. High speeds are great, but it was a good reminder to pay attention!
There's a restaurant in Torri called La Vecchia Fattoria that we had been wanting to try out (actually the Americans call it the wagon wheel restaurant, even though it has a water wheel outside, not a wagon wheel). Our friends all gave it great reviews for food, service and English, so we thought we'd try it out for the first time while our family was visiting. Before dinner, we did a little exploring around Torri, walking down just past La Vecchia to one of the discount stores I like and we did some browsing. Felix is never happy about walking around, but (after a pretty serious pep talk on the bridge) he survived. The girls and I decided to walk to the restaurant while Rob drove Felix and Ana and secured us a table. Our waiter was awesome in the most amusing way possible. His English sounded like an SNL stereotype of a snooty French accent and Rob's reaction to it made it so much harder for me to keep from laughing. Dinner was a struggle until the food arrived - thankfully we had wine to explain the giggles - then everyone dug in. We had giant salads that were easily at least two-person meals and pizzas, of course. We all did a little sharing and had a memorable experience. After a chilly walk home, it was off to bed so we could be sure to have enough time for two cities the next day!
In the morning, we got up a little later than expected (again) but not much and got moving in time to still see both places. Rob drove Ana and Felix in a friend's car and followed me (since I had the gps). We headed toward Marostica first with the idea that we'd build up an appetite hiking the trail then have lunch in Nove and visit the ceramic shops after lunch. Rob was directly behind me until we turned onto the first main road, then there was one car between us. I kept eyes on until the first roundabout then there were three cars between us and I had traffic to navigate. I drove slow and signaled well in advance but somehow he lost us. When I turned left at the second roundabout, he went straight... but I thought he was still behind me because another car like the one he was driving turned left behind me so I continued on. Then he called me to ask where I was. Freaking GREAT. I couldn't navigate him back to me because I didn't know where he was and he couldn't figure out where I had turned so he couldn't even get back to a meeting point where we could link back up and continue on. He decided to take Ana and Felix through Vicenza instead of trying to find us, so they went there and we continued on to Marostica.
As always when driving up to Marostica, the view of the castle and wall is pretty awesome and this trip was no different. Once we parked and walked inside, I was disappointed to see that the chess board was covered up. It's ice skating season and where better to build a little ice rink than the town square? Naturally! So we walked up the back streets towards the chapels and the trail. This was my first time walking the entire trail and I knew it was steep but I had forgotten how rough it was in some places and I was really glad that Rob had gone into Vicenza instead because I know Felix would not have been good with the hike. At the top of the trail is the upper castle and a restaurant. We stopped to enjoy the view for a minute, then climbed to the highest point of the upper castle to check out the best view available of Marostica. We returned the way we came... I was pretty sure I was gonna be sliding down on the leaves at a couple points, but I stayed on my feet the whole way down. Then we headed on to Nove for a long lunch at Cafe Roma (more giant salads!!) and some general wandering around town while waiting for stores to reopen after riposo. 
Since Nove is known for ceramics, there are ceramic decorations absolutely everywhere. The sides of buildings have all kinds of masterpieces attached to them, bridges have ceramic tiles painted with stories across them, each streetlamp has a different ceramic design on it. Every time I visit, I find something I haven't seen before and every time I visit, there's something new to be found. We did a little investigating around the church while killing a little more time... the church was not open - we checked! Then we headed on to see if any of the stores were open. Being so close to Christmas (and riposo was not quite technically over yet) it began to look hopeless, then I found a place and we finally got to see some ceramics. We only went to two places, but it was fun to see just how small a world it really is because in one of the stores, there's a newspaper article from the Aiken Standard (Aiken, SC) magnified and on display for customers to see that the store's reach actually does extend beyond Italy. What are the odds that tiny little Aiken and tiny little Nove would cross paths in this way? Slim, but obviously not impossible. We made a couple small purchases and headed back home to link up with the rest of the family and see how we wanted to wind up the day. I called Rob to find out how soon they were coming back and they had decided to stay for a light show and have dinner downtown, so we decided to get pizzas from the local spot. CJ and I enjoyed watching the pizzas being made while we waited (not something you get to really experience at Domino's!) and it turned out well for everyone, despite our rocky start. Tomorrow it's off to Verona!!
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