I will finish off my series of posts from my recent trip to Italy with a few random maps I saw in my travels. Hopefully these are interesting beyond my personal whims. I will start with this raised relief map of the Valpolicella wine region hanging on the wall of the Tenuta Santa Maria winery.  Here is a close up to better see the nice three dimensional detail. The winery is located at the red dot. Nearby the winery in Fumane (upper left of the above map) we had a fantastic meal at the Enoteca Valpolicella, part of a group of slow food Premiate Trattorie Italiane. "21 establishments that share the same values, starting from the desire to communicate and promote the territory they belong to through the culture of good food made of ancient traditions and family warmth." Their web site has this map so you can travel your way through the country eating some of the best regional food in each area. The sommelier could even point out the window to where the wine came from! While the above map could be described as "nothing special" I like the antique like look of the terrain and appreciate when anyone takes the time to make a map that doesn't come from Google. Speaking of nothing special here is a hand drawn map hanging in the Pesce Rosso (red fish) gallery in the town of Bassano del Grappa. It basically says see our other location across the river but does a nice job illustrating Bassano's famous Andrea Palladio designed bridge. Another shop in Bassano sells amber jewelry and features this hand drawn map of the Amber Trail hanging on its wall. This was a trade route used to bring amber from the Baltic countries to the Mediterranean via Venice. The trail has a trans-national greenway running through Poland, Slovakia and Hungary.  That concludes the "random maps I took photos of" series.

The drive up to Michigan was something I did for myself, and I visited a number of historical and cultural sites along the way. But I took the trip to drive a kid home for the summer and now I had a passenger for the rest of the ride. So I front-loaded most of the […] The post Taming the Frontier, Part 2 appeared first on Twelve Mile Circle - An Appreciation of Unusual Places.