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Trento
This was the main town square and one night we watched the end of a classical music concert that was held in a nearby street for free!I decided to go to Trento as a bit of a last minute decision. Justin and Barry were going to Florence for a few days but I had already been there 2 years ago so I wanted to do something different. I read through my Lonely Planet on the train to Locarno and when I read that there was good hiking in the Dolomites I thought that that would be a cool alternative. Something very different to what we had done already anyway. So thats how I found myself in the small town of Trento in Northern Italy.
After talking with some girls at the Tourism Office and chatting to the person at my hostel I decided to do a trek from a town called San Lorenzo in Banale through the Brenta Dolomites to another town called Molveno. I met an aussie guy called Hamish from Sydney the day before I headed off and invited him to come too. He was a top bloke and we had a lot fun over the next two days.
We took a bus to San Lorenzo and bought a map of the area before starting what turned out to be a truly
Refugi Cacciatore
Enjoying a well deserved meal in the sun. awesome experience. The first 4 hours of the hike were quite steep but not extremely challenging climbing. It was really nice walking through the forests and along small streams in narrow valleys. As we climbed higher more of the mountains became visible and I was really surprised when I saw them. The Brenta Dolomites are very eroded and look amazing from wherever you look at them. At around 3 we arrived at Fefugi Cacciatore and were delighted to discover an Italian guy with a guitar and lots of people sitting around singing songs. We ordered a big bowl of spaghetti each and then hung around for an hour and a half listening to Italian songs and enjoying the view.
We only had a short hike on to Refugi Agostini so we took our time and spent quite a while in the valley looking at wildflowers and just relaxing. On the way there I was looking at the map and I realised that we had climbed more than 2km in elevation that day... Im sure people do it all the time but I was really surprised when I saw that! We had a celebratory beer once we had arrived at
Up to Agostini
We actually had to trek over this range of peaks the next day... the refuge but that was all the money I spent there. For dinner we had bread and tinned tuna while the people inside the warm dinning hall looked out at us over steaming bowls of pasta. :P Then as they all headed off to bed I got my sleeping bag out and headed up the mountain a bit and found a relatively flat spot to sleep. I had Michaels sleeping bag from Sweden so I thought Id be fine but it did get quite cold and I woke up several times and had to curl up tighter. I am glad I slept out though because I got to see the night sky and what a view it was. I have never seen so many stars in the sky before! It was as if the Milky Way covered the entire sky! I think it was due to the altitude, clean air and lack of lights, but yeah it took my breath away.
In the morning I got up at 6 and took my sleeping bag to a cliff near the refuge and sat there for an hour watching the sunrise over the peaks across the valley. It was really special
Sunrise in the Dolomites
I was rudely awoken by a fly buzzing around my head but after my initial annoyance I realised that it was sunrise and was actually quite grateful to the fly. :P and is now one of the highlights of my trip so far. I then woke Hamish up and we had our breakfast that we had carried with us. Mine was 4 of 5 croissants and Hamish had a mixture of muesli, condensed milk and water our of a plastic bag... :P Rested and refueled we left on the last part of our trek. Our muscles were still very sore from the day before so we took it nice and easy and I really enjoyed descending through a different valley to Molverno. We were exhausted when we arrived late in the afternoon and caught a bus pretty much straight away back to Trento, to our waiting beds. The next day I caught a train on to Rome to meet up with the others.
Rome It was awesome to return to Rome and see the city in summer although it was very hot the whole time we were there. This made sight seeing in the middle of the day quite uncomfortable so we did quite a bit of chilling out. When I arrived I met up with Dan pretty much straight away in our hostel, so that was really cool to
Refugi Agostini
Our little refuge up in the mountains. catch up with him. Then Justin and Barry arrived from Florence and we all sat around for a few hours chatting!
During our 4 days in Rome we went to most of the major sights including the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, Capitoline Hill, Roman Forum, Trevi Fountain, St Peters Basilica, Spanish Steps and the Pantheon. I really enjoyed it but I was seeing most things for the second time so that made it a little less special. What did make it very special though was that I had my 21st Birthday on the last day we were in Rome. The boys took me out to dinner in a restaurant near the Colosseum and then we walked around the Roman Forum wearing togas (bed sheets from our hostel). :P We got quite a few smiles and had a great time. Even though it would have been awesome to have had my 21st with all my friends back home Im sure that I will always look back with very fond memories on that night in Rome. The next morning Barry left for Australia and Dan, JC and I left for Napoli.
Napoli We didnt really explore Napoli at all but used
Wildflowers
There were heaps of beautiful wild flowers everywhere and these annoying little flys/bees that buzzed around our heads all the time... it as a base to explore the surrounding area. This included a day trip to Pompei which was really amazing. I had made a bet the night before with an English girl we went out with, and lost, so I had to wear a toga (hostel bed sheet) while we walked around the ruins. Got quite a few stares and strange comments but it was surprisingly comfortable and cool so I think that I had the last laugh! It felt like I was actually back 2000 years walking around a Roman town. (So if you ever go to Pompei wear a toga!)
We also did a day trip to Ischia, an island not too far off the coast. It is renouned for its healing
radioactive
springs but we werent brave enough for that so we spent mosts of our time on the beach. The beach wasnt perfect (well no beach is perfect after Cott) but we had a good time throwing the frisbee around and playing with a small football I had found in Spain.
Before we move on from Napoli I should also mention the hostel we stayed in for anyone going there anytime soon. It was
Through the pass
Crossing over into the next valley. called the "Hostel of the Sun" and was easily the best hostel I have ever stayed in. 20 euros a night and lots of free extras like internet, dvds on a plasma screen, washing machine, kitchen, heaps of travel books to browse through... etc The people there were also very friendly and helpful and we ended up spending a lot of our time just hanging out with other travelers there.
After a few days in Napoli we took the train south to Salerno and used that as a base to explore the Amalfi Coast and Paestum. Paestum is about an hour south of Salerno and is famous because it has the 3 best preserved Greek temples in the world. (of so we were told) It was really impressive to see these massive buildings still standing after over 2500 years of the elements!
The Amalfi Coast was no less spectacular and we spent 2 days visiting the towns of Amalfi and Positano. We spent most of our time on the beach as usual but on the second day Dan and I were feeling adventurous so we did a bit of rock climbing and rock diving. My bouldering skills, from
Amazing scenery
Often we would be trudging along and suddenly one of us would look up and say "WOW!" :P Year 11 Sport :P, came in handy as we made our way along the cliff face to a good jumping off spot. It was really fun because we could try and climb really hard cliffs without worrying too much because there was just a sheer drop to water below. We were also lucky enough to watch the sun set in Positano and Amalfi as we enjoyed a takeaway pizza. (everything else was way too expensive, as you would expect on the Amalfi Coast)
Well I think Ive gone on way too long on this blog so I appologise. We are currently trying to make our way to Tunisia and it is proving much harder than we anticipated but that is definitely a story for the next blog.
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Morgan
non-member comment
Missing my travel buddy...
Hey Joel! Hope you guys are having a great time. It was great meeting up with yall in Barc. Can't wait til you're back in Vienna. It's a total drag here with no one around. You and me can hit up the first Kaiko night together. xoxo m