A trip to Remember

A year has come and gone, and I have been so busy that I don’t know where to start. Let me, at least, begin highlighting the most significant events of the year. Well, as I recall I was on my way to Italy, more specifically Padova. My wife, Patricia and I departed to Italy on October 20st, 2015. Nothing was well planned aside from the fact that our first stop was going to be the Auto D’Epoca Feria in Padova. I had no time to sit down in front of the computer trying to figure out where to go. I knew that the first order of business was Auto D’ Epoca, and I also knew all the places I wanted to visit on this trip. I have been to Italy in the past but it was under a structured setting, and the experience certainly was not the same.

We arrived in Italy at the Venice Parco Polo Airport and rented an Alfa Romeo Giulietta with no other definite plans other that my intended mission to Padova. Out of the 11 days spent in Italy, three of them were set aside for Auto D’ Epoca Feria and the remaining days were for leisure. Mestre at Ai Pini Hotel, on the outskirts of Venice, was the base of operations. I tried to book a reservation at a Hotel in Padova to be close the Feria, but all were booked and only the ones available were at a distance and expensive. The stay in Mestre worked very well; Padova was about a 25 – 30 minutes drive every day, and that was not a problem. The day before the Feria we spent the entire day in Venice, and it was wonderful.

We rented this 6 speed Diesel for the trip.

 

Here where we stayed at Hotel Ai Pini in Mestre.

I got to say that this is an absolute MUST for any car lover. The event truly exceeded my expectations, and I managed to enjoy every moment of it. Because this was my very first time to the Auto D’ Epoca Faria, I had no plans to deviate from my planned schedule. My goal was to locate parts for my current restorations, have a feel for what was happening, get my arms around on the event, and how people completed their transactions. I also wanted to meet the vendors I do business with and also meet with friends, in that respect, it worked as intended. The place was so large that it was easy to get side tracked and thus became disorienting. The good part was that the Pavillions were very well organized and easy to cruise from one Pavillion to another. Thus getting a peak view into the other Pavillions and see what was there made it more manageable. Pat and I spent three days at the Feria and most of those days where spent at Pavillion #8 where the parts and majority of the vendors were located. I must admit that we were done with anything related to cars by the last day of the Fair.

From left to right; Alejandro Marcaccio, Luca De Angelli and me

We had another seven days to do what we wanted; Just got in the car and drove to places we wanted to see. During our visit, we spent time in Venice, Vicenza, Verona, Mantova, Padova, and Treviso and surrounding towns. We wanted to allocate more time in Venice and Mestre, and we divided the rest of the free days between Mestre and Venice.

Wife Pat in Verona

A night in Venice

A day at Piazza San Marco

With that, belated Happy New year to everyone.

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