May 5, 2018

We were up and at breakfast by 7:30 am. We had to be ready to go by 9 am because today we had a driver and guide.

We were picked up by Andrea Tosolini and his driver. Andrea is the owner of an Italian importing company in Gainesville, FL named "Fruit of the Boot." Andrea is originally from the Alto Adige and returns there often. He came to take us to see how the 110 year old company, Pastificio Felicetti, makes their Pasta and to introduce us to the owner. The company is located in Predazzo, about an hour drive from Haus am Hang. It was an absolutely gorgeous morning, so I snapped a few pictures outside of our hotel while we waited for Andrea to arrive.

Andrea made it just a bit after 9 am and headed across the valley floor to Auer (Ora) where we would ascend up and over the first ridge above the valley floor. The drive through all of the crests and valleys was spectacular. We had a mix of clouds, a few sprinkles, and a bit of occasional sun poking through the clouds.

Predazzo sits at the end of a valley, which then splits off into two smaller valleys. The streets are narrow and I had a hard time believing that a fairly large pasta manufacturing plant could be found in a small town like this. Andrea had to asked a pedestrian for directions because we couldn't see any large industrial buildings. He pointed out the way, and two blocks later, we were at Pastificio Felicetti. www.felicetti.it/en/

We were met by Riccardo Felicetti , the CEO of Felicetti Pastificio. Riccardo is also president of the International Pasta Organization. The company was founded by his great-grandfather in 1908. Since 2013, Felicetti began using only wheat grown in Italy for all of the pasta production. Riccardo took us into their conference room for a wine tasting. We were shortly joined by legendary Italian winemaker Giorgio Grai from from Bolzano. Giorgio poured a Pinot Bianco, a Viognier and a sparkling wine. They were all exceptionally delicious. The view from the window was spectacular.

Now it was time to suit up for our tour of the plant.

We were amazed at the care and concern Riccardo Felicetti, his family, and staff devote towards maintaining a great balance between their continuing education, progressive use of technology, and holding true to the goal of producing the highest quality pasta possible. Our time at Pastificio Felicetti flew by. It was now time to hit the road to our next destination. It was about a 40 minute drive southwest of Predazzo to just outside the small village of Faver.

We arrived at Distilleria Pilzer during the heart of lunch hour, which in Italy is really more like 2-3 hours. Bruno Pilzer, owner and master distiller, met us and suggested we follow him down the road for lunch. So we did. We drove for 20 minutes until we reached the town of Lavis and pulled into Ristorante Maso Franch. www.masofranch.it/

Lunch was in a private room. We had Carpaccio carne salade (I was in raw beef heaven), pork cheeks with honey mushrooms and mashed potato, chocolate mousse, local wine, and Pilzer apricot grappa!

Lunch was absolutely delicious. Completed satiated, we drove back to Distilleria Pilzer for a tour and tasting. Pilzer specializes in grappa and fruit brandy, and even makes a very good gin, one of the first produced in Italy. www.pilzer.it

I broke away from the tasting to put the drone in the air. The Distilleria sits on a south eastern facing slope at 2400' elevation above the Avisio Torrente, which is an 56 mile long Italian stream (torrent) being an eastern tributary of the Adige river. It runs through the Trentino. I captured some breath taking footage from above. I have my first drone scare of the trip. I flew it out and down across the gorge about a mile and a half out. The images were stunning. I got a instrument warning of 'strong aircraft interference" on my display and heard a helicopter in the distance. The drone was well out of visual sight and I relying solely on instruments to fly. All of a sudden my color screen went black and white and I now got a "lost drone connection." My drone was now on its own. My control unit and the drone itself have GPS, so the drone was supposed to automatically fly pack to the GPS location it took off from on this flight. A minutes passed, then two, then three. My anxiety grew and a sinking feeling was beginning to come over me. Had I just lost my $1000 dollar drone this soon into our trip? Another minute passed, and all of a sudden I heard that beautiful mosquito like hum of my drone returning! What a relief. It functioned exactly as it was designed to.

84 year young Giorgio Grai took a very keen interest in the drone.

We thanked Bruno for his hospitality, the tasting, and for the tour then climbed into the van for our drive back to Haus am Hang.

Andrea got us back safely. We thanked him for driving us around all day and gave him our goodbyes. We went to our rooms for a few minutes then it was back into our car for a quick ride to Peter DiPoli's estate.From there, we followed Peter out of Egna and up the mountain to the nearby town of Montagna. We arrivedat Buschenschank & Ferienwohnungen Lexnhof where we stopped in for dinner.

www.lexnhof.it

Lexnhof sits at nearly 2000' in elevation. It is an Italian style bed and breakfast, which serves typical homemade South Tyrolean delicacies. It is run by a single young family, who's mother does all of the cooking. The view down into the valley from the third floor balcony was spectacular.