Bassano del Grappa

 

Sargent with Alpini Hat

Bassano de Grappa is known as the City of the Alpine Soldiers. Almost every family in town has a member in the unit. These soldiers are like our 10^th mountain division trained to fight in the snow and mountain terrain. They were formed in 1872. The unit defended Italy from the Austrian Hungarian Army during World War I. The decisive battle was the battle of Mount Grappa on October 24^th, 1918. During World War II, these units fought against Germany, after July 1943. We had a lecture from a local journalist and a member of the Alpini Association. He was a Sargent in a seventy soldier unit. Their alpine hat with an eagle feather marks the unit, the eagle in front is his rank of sergeant. Tom in our tour group had a grandfather who was in the Alpini, he was injured during World War I outside Trieste, and immigrated to the US after the war.

Grappa Museum

The town is also known for its Grappa distilleries. The Poli distillery has an interesting distillery museum. The Ponte Vechio across the Brente River was designed by Palladio in the 1569 and has been reconstructed several times after floods or wars, this version was built in 1966.

Ponte Vechio in Bassano del Grappa

We headed to Venice, our group of 11 required 2 water taxis to transfer our group of 10 and our baggage to the Hotel Palazzo Barocci, right on the Grand Canal between the Rialto and Academia bridges.

Mary, Barbara, Sidony, and Brent in our Water Taxi