Rain, Rain, Go away!

After the droughts of the last couple of years in Indiana it feels sacrilegious to wish the rain away. However, last night I watched people carry in sandbags, we went to 3 restaurants before one was open (due to flooding), and we were drenched! So I don't feel too terrible, especially as I began to wonder about "aqua alta". Aqua Alta is normally, to my understanding, a winter experience in Venice, one where everything is flooded. But what will all this rain do to Venice? Yesterday after a delightful breakfast of the usual suspects, bread (coronettos aka croissants), yogurt, meat, cheese and coffee (so strong, I swear I felt a few hairs grow on my chest!), and juice we motivated and left. Target Bassano de Grappa via Nove. I had wanted to go to Asiago, but with the weather, I chickened out of driving in the mountains, or so I thought. We started out meandering, working our way from secondary roads to smaller two lane roads, in and out of little towns and villages, even in the rain it was charming. Finally I needed facilities (all that coffee), fortunately the infidels have infiltrated here and we stopped at McDonalds for a beverage and potty break. Jodi had some fun at my expense over it, but, hey, at usually the BR is clean and I can get her a diet coke. We were both enchanted with the chairs as there was a purse notch in the back. We also wanted some bottled water (.79Euro/6) tissues and paper towels. The little store reminded me of Aldis at home. Off we went to meander some more and meander we did, up into the local very BIG hills/mountains! It was raining so hard the rivers were running at their muddy brown full speed, water was coming up out of drains, and there were mud slides! We ended up on tiny little one lane roads with no guardrails, I was getting pretty nervous. (O.K., I just did a little research on venice and am somewhat reassured, the Venice website indicates that Aqua Alta is tide related) We finally made it out and I headed for the main roads! Eventually we made it to Nove, without fighting I might add. My previous two experiences in Nove included a spat of some sort. To my surprise, we even found a cermics factory still open. I think the courtyard still rang with Steve Salvador's cries of "Just how are we going to get all that in the car?" from almost 20 years ago! I bought a goodie for a friend who just bought a new house, one for my Momma and a couple of things for myself. Hopefully with more finesse than my first time, I have a lovely little ceramic basket complete with roses that is virtually useless from that first trip! Then back to the B&B for a wine tasting, mission:: Amerone. Traffic on the way back was stopped due to an accident in a tunnel. I began to wonder if we were going to make our 7:00 PM deadline, but we did! We tried a Soave (white - o.k.), A Valpolicella (delish, much better than the Valpoliecllias one gets in the states) and an Amerone (Heaven in a glass). We bought 3 one to drink here and two small ones to bring home. So back to the room for a breather and then off to dinner. The rain would let up some to a regular rain, and then pour again, off and on all day and somehow we managed to be out in the drenching more often then the regular rain.
The restaurant we ended up in was called Locanda de Scudo. For those of you ladies who have taken the SANE course, this is the Italian word for Eschutcheon! Which, just to remind you means shield! I had fettuccine with a veal ragu, and zucchini which was very good, light but filling, and Jodi had tortellini which was good as well. For dessert we shared a creme brulee. Back out side, but finally without rain, and we took our sorry wet selves back and went to bed!