Agriturismo in Veneto

Following a Bolzano visit during my 14-day/13-night Italy trip in 2014 (Oct. ’14, pg. 16), I spent six days around and in Venice, in the Veneto region. Because I had a 6:45 a.m. flight out on my last day, I looked for a place to stay near the airport for the five nights, May 10-15. 

After much research, I settled on the 14-room, family-run Agriturismo Ca’ Beatrice (Via Triestina, 99/A, 30173 Favaro, Veneto [VE], Italy; phone +39 041 63 53 22, www.agriturismo cabeatrice.it). Almost new, it is handsomely constructed. What a find! Everyone involved bent over backward to be kind and helpful, making my stay one to be remembered.

At €102 (near $128) per night, including all taxes and breakfast, my large, super-clean, light-filled double room with beamed ceilings couldn’t have been better. It had comfortable reading chairs and two large windows that opened and faced east toward the fields, the Alps visible in the distance. The fantastic modern bathroom functioned perfectly. 

The room was exceptionally quiet at night; I slept well. Instead of the proverbial rooster, a cuckoo bird in the trees told me it was morning!

The airy breakfast room was most pleasant, with the food cooked and served by owners, Anna and Roberto. I enjoyed the fresh fruit (cantaloupe, pineapple and kiwis) and blood orange juice, great scrambled eggs (including cheese, bacon and ham), yogurt, perfect small croissants and cakes and individually made coffees.

There was free on-site parking. I took a taxi from the Mestre rail station to the hotel for about €25, and it would have cost €30 from the hotel to the airport but the agriturismo owners gave me a ride (at 4:30 a.m.!).

Also at no extra cost, they provided rides to (and from) the bus stop. From there, it was a 20-minute ride into Piazzale Roma in Venice. Round-trip bus tickets were available at the front desk for €2.60. 

Ca’ Beatrice is only a few steps from their restaurant, Trattoria da Olinda (Via Triestina, 99, 30020 Favaro, Veneto, Mestre, Italy; phone +39 041 63 00 20), where I enjoyed pasta with homemade strozzapreti noodles (€9). It was open for lunch and dinner.

From my second-story window at Ca’ Beatrice, I enjoyed watching the process of hay being baled. A small machine pushed the hay into long piles the entire length of the field. The next afternoon, a different machine “swallowed” the hay and disgorged huge bales wrapped in shiny plastic. The following day, a machine lifted each bale into a tiny flatbed truck and they were taken to the back of the field and piled up for storage.

In the midst of the harvest activities, many gulls swooped down to eat the displaced field mice, and by evening a cat was patiently stalking its supper.