We travel well, Rob and I! We do unusual things sometimes. In October 2017 we hired a car so we could drive from Vicenza to Bassano del Grappa, a town at the foothills of the Venetian pre-alps, to see the locksmith and coincidentally try some grappa.
Most of us have tried grappa in some form and Bassano del Grappa is the home of some very refined grappa which makes it even more attractive! It’s about 45 minutes by car from Vicenza and just over an hour from Venice – easily reached by train and bus. The intricate timber bridge was designed by the architect Andrea Palladio in 1569 – when he was busy designing most of Vicenza and many of the buildings in the region. The Ponte degli Alpini, is named after the Alpini, an elite mountain infantry who defended the alps in both world wars and who are based in Bassano.
Surprisingly though, we weren’t going for the grappa tasting this time. We were going to see a local artisan locksmith – Le Maniglie di Stefano – who had had our broken lock since we were there in May, 5 months before. Rob had tried two other places in town where he thought he may have been able to get a replacement lock for our balcony door, but the owners said perhaps 20 years ago, but not now.
We left it with Stefano when he was in Vicenza for the large antiques market held every month, except in summer when it’s too hot. He said he would fix the lock and bring it back in October. We weren’t around the day he came back to town, hence our trip. We were anxious that he didn’t lose the key as it’s irreplaceable now.
Even though Italy, like most places, is changing, there is strong evidence that many people still maintain traditional values and live their lives unchanged in many ways. Stefano took the broken lock, and with only a photo of the other door, fixed it; he remembered who we were when we texted and then rang, and when we went to collect it, he left it with his charming and generous father. He charged us €5 – which is another thing – he didn’t see this as an opportunity to make some money from the unsuspecting Australians, but rather an opportunity to use his skills as a locksmith, learned from his father, to do a precise job.
We left with a repaired lock and laden with strawberry grapes from his vines which covered the pergola and a new insight about freezing basil. I hadn’t thought of freezing the leaves when they are so plentiful. We also departed with his hand-drawn map directing us to the Capovilla distillery in nearby Rosà, also worth a visit.
