My Bassano Journey During Corona

In this blogpost I'll tell you my personal experience about living in Italy during Corona and being forced to come back to Belgium because of it. I went to Italy in February and was supposed to stay there for an internship until the end of May, but my internship got discontinued because of Corona. The first part of this blog will include the whole story from day one till the day I returned back to Belgium. If you're not interested in this part, skip to the second part to read about the food I ate in Bassano del Grappa and where I ate it.

The Journey

On Saturday February the 22nd my mom, a friend of hers and I left at 5 in the morning to Italy. The internship I was going to do was going to be in Bassano del Grappa, a lovely little town in the North-East of Italy, about 1 hour away from Venice and Treviso. The 3 of us had a big trip ahead of us, a whopping 12-14 hours in the car. Because the Belgian holidays had already started, the roads were quite busy so our GPS gave us an alternative route. We took a lot of shortcuts on the most dizzy roads up and down the mountains, which also meant not a lot of gas stations nor restaurants on our route where we could grab a quick bite.

We arrived in Bassano around 6 in the evening with the most hungry stomachs ever. We drove to our meeting point with my landlord, took a quick look at the apartment and then headed to out hotel to freshen up. We went into town for dinner and some drinks and then headed to bed quite early because we were so exhausted.

The next day we got up early because my mom and her friend wanted to save some time to go into town to explore (they were going to leave around 2 in the afternoon). We had breakfast in the hotel and then headed to the supermarket to do my first Italian groceries. We spent way too much time in this huge supermarket so there was not much time left for them to visit the town as every shop closes during lunch time in Italy and only opens again around 4 p.m. We had lunch and then they left. Right before they got into the car to head of to their ski trip (also in Italy) we heard the first news about the Corona Virus in Italy, which resulted in my mom doubting wether or not to leave me in Italy. But my non-worried ass (at that time) comforted her and made her leave to enjoy her ski trip.

On Monday the 24th my first working day began. At the company they told me that they were already worried wether or not I was still coming to do the internship. They also informed me that the virus already had some impact on how the business was working at that moment because of the uncertain future.

So I started my internship, everything was fine, nice colleagues, lovely town and nice weather. The first weekend I went to explore the town together with some colleagues of mine and did my second groceries. The same goes for the next week, I worked everyday, chilled at the apartment after work and went to town during the weekend. In the second weekend on Saturday the 7th of March I got the news that my family's trip was cancelled and that they weren't able to come and visit me on my Birthday the 29th of March, which really upset me.

In week 3, I was supposed to go to the mountains with the marketing department to do our collection shoot for Winter 2021, but this trip got cancelled because of the Virus (the governmental measures were getting more strict already). So I went to the office like usual and did the regular tasks I did everyday. On Tuesday the situation got worse, even more measures were taken and everyday they got more and more strict. My internship company implemented working schedules, starting from Tuesday; we weren't allowed to be in the office with too many people at the same time, so we had 1 group of workers coming in the morning and the other group in the afternoon. We also weren't allowed to take the same shift as the person sitting next to us or in front of us at the working desk.

By the weekend of week 3 the situation had escalated very quickly. We were now an "orange" zone which meant not coming out of the house unless you were going to work, going to do groceries or anything else that was important. This meant that all restaurants and cafés were closed which also meant I had to celebrate my birthday on my own because of the semi-quarantine. Next to this, we had to carry a document with us that stated who we were, where we lived and where we were going (the address of your work), which you had to show whenever a carabinieri (the national gendarmerie of Italy ) stopped you. Luckily this never happened to me, I was able to take my bike to work and go for a run during the weekend. On Friday the 13th of March they announced that our company was completely closing the following week, which made me "unemployed". The situation in Belgium was also getting worse and I received lots of mails from my school (sent out to all students) that they prefered for all students to come back home. So I looked for possible ways to get back home as I was also not feeling at ease anymore in Italy and I wanted to be close to my family during this situation. I looked at trains, but these were too complicated because I had to pass through 3 different countries and there was no certainty about them letting me pass through without any difficulties. Then I looked at flights, which were all crazy expensive and long in duration, but my mom really wanted me back home so we booked a flight for Tuesday the 17th of March, going from Verona to Amsterdam and then to Brussels.

I took some boxes from the company to pack all my stuff. The only thing I had to travel was 1 small hand luggage and a backpack, so I stuffed them with as many clothes as possible and other necessary things and put the rest of things in boxes. I had to leave 2 boxes full of clothing, 2 boxes with pots, pans and electronics and some other extra stuff. On Monday the 16th the Dutch government announced that they were going to cancel all flights coming from Italy, which resulted in my flight getting cancelled too. I was extremely sad, I cried all day, tried to call all governmental institutes, the airplane company and my college, with no response or clear solution. I even called the travel agency that works for my college to see if they could get me home in some kind of way. I quickly got a mail from the Internship coordinator that they were doing all they possibly could to get me back home. So I cried some more, called some family members and waited for any type of sign.

My mom, who had been trying to reach KLM (the travel company I booked a flight with), called me somewhere around lunch. She told me that the company informed her that no flights were being scheduled anymore coming from Italy and that I had to wait until after the quarantine, which was the 5th of april. Which meant that I was stuck in Italy for almost 3 more weeks. I cried even more. Then, all of a sudden, I got a mail from my Internship coordinator. The mail went something like this:

Hi Manon, 
We were able to book a flight for you tomorrow the 17th of March at 14:55 departing from Venice. We will send you the tickets later today. Make sure all your bags are packed and that you are ready to go. 
Kind regards

I could not have been more happy than I was at that moment. I started to pack all final necessities and got to bed as happy as a kid. I got up bright and early to make sure I wasn't going to forget anything and that all my stuff was either in a box or in my luggage. I went to the train station in Bassano to catch a train at 9.20 to Venice. I arrived in Venice exactly 1 hour later where I took a bus to the airport. I arrived at the airport around 11 and grabbed myself some food. I had never seen an airport as empty as this one; all lights were out and all shops closed except for one food stall. I still had a lot of time to kill but luckily met this nice girl from Germany who was doing an Erasmus in Italy, and was going to take the same flight as me.

Time could not have gone slower that day, it took ages before the time was there to depart. But at 14:55 sharp the plane took off. I landed in Frankfurt about 40 minutes later and had a layover of 4 freaking hours. This airport was the complete opposite from the one in Venice. All shops were open, loads of people and not as many masks were being worn. I grabbed myself a magazine and some ships and ate a sandwich around 5 as dinner. I eventually arrived in Brussels around half past 10 in the evening.

My mom and dad came to pick me up and dropped me of in Leuven, where my aunt has an apartment she wasn't living in at that time. I self-quarantined for an entire week and finally got "home" on Tuesday the 24th.

As happy as I am that I am back home, I am still very sad about the fact that I had to leave Italy so soon and that I wasn't able to finish what I started. Though, I am glad that I am healthy and safe and so is my family and I still have loads of time to go back to the lovely Bassano del Grappa, the town that stole my heart.

I want to thank all the lovely people at Campagnolo and my landlord and his family to take care of me and help me with getting home and staying safe. (If they are reading this)

The food

I left Belgium on the 22nd of February at 5 in the morning together with my mom and her friend in a van packed with luggage. It was a pretty long ride as the holidays had also started in Belgium which resulted in the the roads being as packed as our van. We arrived in Bassano at around 6 in the evening. We went to our hotel to freshen up and then went into town for dinner and some drinks.

We were sent to "Alla Veneziana" by the landlord of my apartment. It is a restaurant that doesn't really stand out and is easy to walk by, without noticing. When we got in we were nicely welcomed by the staff and were directed to our table. At first, there weren't many people yet, besides us, that were eating. That is because we were quite early according to the Italian dinner time, so by the time we left, the restaurant was completely filled by customers. Me and my mom both ordered pizza; she went for Pizza Campagnola which was a pizza with a mix of different mushrooms on it (€7,90) and I went for a Calzone with mixed vegetables (€8). Our friend went for a Steak (€20) with a mixed salad (€4) and fries (€4). As you can see the prices are really cheap in comparison to Belgian prices but the quality of the food is even better. My mom's pizza was delicious (we split both pizzas) and mine was too but hers just had a little bit more flavour. The steak was also very good, according to our friend, it was really soft and good in quality. The staff was very friendly, but I have already noticed that this is the case everywhere you go in Bassano.

For drinks we went to Il Palazzo delle Misture di Bassano which is an amazingly beautiful and cosy cocktail bar in the middle of town. The walls are filled with bottles of alcohol, there are small couches everywhere and you can also choose to sit at the bar. My mom ordered a cocktail called "Missionary's downfall" which contained lime juice, honey sirup, light rum, fresh pineapple and a bit of mint (€8), I asked for the same thing but without alcohol and our friend asked for a custom non-alcoholic drink based on ginger beer. They gave her something sweet which was absolutely delicious, though I have no clue what exactly was in it. I love this cocktail bar very much as it is so cosy and beautiful, their offer is extremely wide and as you can read, you can even ask for a personalized cocktail too. They also offer wine, beer and rum... anything alcoholic to be fair.

The next day, before my mom and her friend left, we went for lunch at NOIKOS a super cosy and nicely decorated restaurant right at the Ponte Vecchio. They had lots of special dishes on their menu that all looked very intriguing, though we couldn't understand half of it. We chatted a bit with the waiter and asked for some translations and eventually ended up ordering: Zuppa al curry e latte di cocco con verdure verdi (curry soup with coconut milk and green vegetables) (€10) and Lasagnetta di Pasta all'uovo fonduta di asiago radicchio e nocciole (€13), which is a kind of fried pasta with a cheese sauce/ cream with hazelnuts and a special type of lettuce that is known in the North of Italy (=what the waitress said to me).

Both meals were really good, the soup was a little bit too spicy for me but our friend, who ordered it, didn't mind. The special pasta meal was the one I ordered and I really liked the original tastes in it. I give NOIKOS a big thumbs up.

During my second weekend in Bassano one of my colleagues, that I became friends with, asked me to join her and some friends of her for lunch. We went to Al Querto which seemed like a very popular spot as it was quite busy when we arrived. The weather was nice that day so we waited for a couple of minutes for a table outside. Both the interior and exterior were very cute and nicely done. The location is also perfect as it is very close to the Ponte Vecchio (it is in the same street as NOIKOS).

We ordered:

- A sushi burger with baby spinach, amberjack carpaccio, avocado, bean sprouts, spicy mayonnaise and teriyaki sauce (€15)

- 2 times the croque madame with cheese, ham, dark gruyere cheese and a fried egg (€12) I ordered it without the ham

- 2 times the veggie bowl which consisted of sushi rice, avocado, a boiled egg, confit cherry tomatoes and stewed black cabbage. (€12) one bowl was ordered with some salmon too.

I really enjoyed the Croque, it was super nice and the cheese was very yummy too and I also liked the fried egg on it. The others liked the veggie bowl too, but they would have loved for it to have regular rice in it instead of sushi rice as they didn’t like the stickiness and sweetness of it. The sushi burger was also liked by the person who ordered it, and was exactly what you expect from it; sushi in a burger.

This was unfortunately the last place I went to as the next week we were put into lockdown and all restaurants got closed. Though I did went to Bassano in October 2019 too and remember where I went, but I don't have any photos of it.

The best pasta al pomodoro can be found at "Il Garibaldi" and the rest of their menu also looks very promising. Another place to go for the most unique cocktails is called "Nero Pece", these cocktails are beautifully made and taste delicious too, though the ones at the Palazzo del Misture are a bit stronger. You can also grab a quick bite and sweets at Nero Pece. At Ottocento you can eat all things bio, they exclusively work with local farmers and they have a broad offer of pizzas too that are handmade at the restaurant. Another place that I would have loved to go for my birthday is called Danieli, their terrace looked so cosy and the food looked amazing too.

I hope you loved this little story time about my "Corona Journey" and I hope you and your friends and family are healthy and safe too. Stay inside, try to avoid as much contact as possible, try to do groceries only once a week, in this way we can all beat Corona and get back to our normal lives soon.

A bientôt!

Bisous