Montecchia GC
tennis courts, a gym, and an excellent traditional
restaurant.
After an early rise, the next morning’s game was at
Golf Club Colli Berici, a short 45-minute transfer
from our hotel. This golf club is surrounded by the
Berici Hills and lies a short distance from historic
Vicenza, the birthplace of Palladio, the architect
who inspired the design of America’s White
House. The 18-hole course offers splendid views
of the Lessini Mountains and the Little Dolomites
while the clubhouse has picture windows opening
onto the terraces and offers a fine restaurant
associated with the Confraternita del Baccalà –
a fraternity whose main aim is to preserve the
original ways of preparing the traditional baccalà
fish dish, one of the most celebrated Venetian
dishes – overlooking a new and elegant infinite
pool.
As for the club house restaurant, a top-level
restaurant is managed by the talented and widely-
regarded head chef Giandomenico Zocca. From
locally-sourced seafood, including a soft shell
crab delicacy, to mouth-watering pastas and fine
wines, this restaurant deserves its place at the top
for elegant lunches and dinners.
After lunch, our group transferred to Golf
Club Verona, one of the most beautiful golf
courses in north Italy, close to Lake Garda. It is
also close to the city famous for Shakespeare’s
Romeo and Juliet tragedy, Verona Golf Club is an
environmentally-friendly parkland course graced
by mature trees and surrounded by the vineyards
of the Custoza hills. It was one of the courses that
helped launch the professional career of Italy’s
greatest golfer, Costantino Rocca, when he won
the Challenge Tour’s Open Index tournament
there in 1989. The front nine, which opened for
play in 1963, tests golfers with narrow fairways
hemmed in by trees and greens protected by
mounded bunkers. The back nine holes, added a
decade later, are more open but more undulating.
Volume 4 • Issue 44
23