Field Trip to Asolo

Today I had the pleasure of taking a field trip to nearby Asolo with my Italian for Travelers class. Asolo is a town about 10 minutes away from Paderno and is home to the CIMBA MBA campus. Our class of 22 took a bus there this morning and our Italian Professor gave us a tour of the town.

The bus driver had to drop us off at the bottom of the hill leading up to Asolo because buses are too big to go up there. I was surprised by how steep the walk uphill was―I got my morning workout in! As we entered the town, my classmates and I immediately wished the undergrad campus was in Asolo too. Much bigger than Paderno (but still a small town), Asolo has many ristorantes, cafés, boutiques and even an old castle. There are many more people living there and it actually felt like a happening place, compared to teeny tiny Paderno. I fell in love with the boutiques we passed and had to stop to window-shop at every one.

 

The CIMBA MBA campus sits at the very top of the hill in Asolo, right beside the hiking trail to Rocca, a fortress from the 12th century. The MBA campus itself is located in a historic building with original walls from the 1600s. Intended to be used for a “cultural” place, the interior of the building was renovated in the late 1900s to be used as an art gallery. Instead, Dr. Al and Cristina Turchet, directors of the CIMBA program, swept it up and it has been home to the CIMBA MBA students for the past 20 years.

After our tour of Asolo was done, our professoressa di italiana took us to a café where she required us to order something in Italian. Quite a fun task, I must say. I ordered a cappuccino and a muffin―molto buono! The best part was that Dr. Al, CIMBA director, paid for us all. How kind! Grazie Dottor Al!