Italian Intermediate

Convenor: 
Tutor: Annabella Noviello About
Day/Time: Thursdays at 11am-1.00pm. 
Cost:  £35 for 10 weeks

Restart TBA

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Due to the resounding success of our first Italian trip last year, Annabella and the Italian Group plan to have another one this November.

Report for November 2017 trip.

In November 2017, the East Antrim U3A Italian Group spent a wonderful week in Italy, at the Friuli Venezia Giulia Food and Wine event.  Our guide  Annabella Noviello,  our Italian Tutor, is a native of Trieste and has an intimate knowledge of the Friulian Region. This region is close to the Austrian border and has an interesting history but that’s for another day.

The travel arrangements were very well organised and the accommodation was excellent.

The itinery was detailed and planned to provide us with a comprehensive daily schedule. A coach was laid on for our exclusive use.

During our trip, we visited many local wineries and learnt a lot about the local winemaking industry.

In the evening we dined at some of these establishments where we were treated to many local dishes.

One of the highlights was a visit to Rosazzo Abbey, which is now tastefully converted to a cellar/winery, but has managed to retain some of the original cellars where again we were treated to some very fine wines accompanied by an entertaining and enlightening talk on the winemaking process. We then had a stroll around the magnificent grounds before heading back to the coach to visit another winery, where we had a gourmet dinner – with matching wines of course!

The visit wasn’t all eating and drinking though.  Annabella had organised a visit to the most important world famous Mosaic International School in Spilimbergo, which draws students from all over the world. We felt very priveleged to have the opportunity to observe students at work in the workshops, and admired the skill with which they produced such beautiful art.

Also on the itinery, was an interesting visit to a factory which produced Prosciutto ham. We had the opportunity to sample this delicious ham during lunch in their restaurant.

Other highlight were: A fascinating tour of Venzone which is an ancient town entirely rebuilt stone by stone after the earthquake in 1976.

A James Joyce Trail guided tour which took place in Trieste.

A tour of the ancient Roman Port of Aquileia where we could wander around and see all the interesting artifacts and visit the ancient church:

A visit to an authentic bakery which produced a sweet bread called Gubana to the original recipe:

We had the opportunity to watch this bread being made and to sample it after it had been baked.

All in all, this was a great trip and an opportunity, thanks to Annabella, to see an Italian Region which is less well known, but gave us a true ‘Taste of Italy’