First Trip To Nove

  **I say this is my first time because I see many visits to Nove in the three years we are supposed to be here.**

    Nove is a small town in northern Italy that is famous for its many ceramic shops. I had heard about it from a friend before we even moved to Italy, so when I found out it was less than 20 miles from our house, I was pretty excited! One of my girlfriends wanted to make a trip out there today, so I told her I wanted to tag along. We made sure to leave by 10 in the morning so our shopping didn't interfere with reposo (the afternoon break that most stores close for in Italy). 

    The first store we stopped at had really pretty ceramics with poppys painted on them. The second had pizza platters and plates that caught my eye. We eat a lot of pizza, so I plan on getting a set next time.

     After shopping at those two stores, we took a little break at a coffee shop next to one of the shops. It was super cute and the lady who worked there was so nice. Connor kept talking to her from our table, so she brought him a special little treat after we ate our pastry.

 Poking his finger in our pastry.

Tea for mommy.

    After Connor ate his food, he started to get curious and kept making his way toward the counter. We were the only people there, so I wasn't too worried about him. The sweet lady picked him up and showed him around. She even let him press buttons on the espresso machine.

 He had fun playing.

    After our break, we went to the next store on our list. We only had 10 minutes to shop before it closed for reposo, so we decided to wait until they reopened at 2. To kill time, we drove around for a little while so Connor could take a nap. From Nove we could see what looked like a castle surrounded by a brick wall, so we drove towards it.

 Castello di Marostica.

 We weren't able to drive inside the walls, but there was parking on the outside. Hopefully one of these days we can go see what's inside.

    After exploring for a while, we came back to my house for a quick lunch. When we got back to Nove, we went to the store we tried to go to earlier. Turns out they sold ceramics to Anthropologie (and other stores I'm sure). I am kicking myself for not buying a little dish I was eyeing to hold my rings and small pieces of jewelry.

    The last store we went to, La Ceramica VBC, was my favorite. They make pottery for Williams-Sonoma, Tiffany's, and Macy's and sell if for a fraction of the price. The first floor was the packaging and shipping area. There were tons of boxes and dishes on shelves ready to be packed up. We had to walk through that area to go up the stairs to the shop. Once we got up there, I couldn't believe how big it was. There were shelves after shelves all the way from floor to ceiling with beautiful pottery. At the back, there was a really pretty display with a table setup with dishes. Then there were little nooks behind it with the different collections. It looked like it was right out of a magazine. I found one place setting that I really liked, so I am going to try and convince Aaron that we really need  to buy it before we go back to the states.