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Published: August 7th 2007
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No, I didn't do my Maria interpretive dance today, but I am not more than 30 minutes from where Amy did hers in 1999.
I think I may have just had my favorite day on this trip. I know that both Mom and Katie would have enjoyed it, and I think Amy would have even liked it. For the first time in three weeks I actually had a chance to get away from the middle of a town and enjoy the quiet of nature. Now the fact that it was high up in the Dolomites in the Sudtirol (probably one of my favorite places to be in Western Europe having done this twice now) was just a nice fringe benefit.
This morning after breakfast I walked maybe 8 blocks to the “Funivia del Renon” or the “Rittner Seilbahn” depending on whether you want to speak Italian while you are here or German (and remember, this region was Austrian until the end of WWII so you hear more German on the Street than Italian and EVERYTHING is in both language (hence the Bozen-Bolzano name to this town which is the German and Italian version respectively).
Anyway, the Funivia is
a cable car that runs UP the mountain from Bolzano to Soprabolzano (upper Bolazano). Did I say up? Did I mention that Bolzano is at 262 meters above sea level and the Soprabolzano is 1221 meters above sea level. In other words, the vertical distance of this trip is over half a mile. It is a beautiful trip over vineyards, pine forests, and little alpine meadows. Better yet, I didn’t have to share the trip with a cow (ask my sister Katie about sharing a cable car with a cow if I remember the story right).
Once in Soprabolzano you can start one of at least 8 trails from there and wonder around the mountains. On the advice of my colleague here in Bolzano, I decided to take trail number 1 from Soprabolzano to Collalbo. I have no idea how long the trip was, but it took me 90 minutes at a VERY leisurely pace. Again, the trail is an interesting mix of pine forests, grassy meadows, bridges over deep river gorges, city streets, people’s back fences, people’s access roads. It is listed as a “groomed” trail (my term not theirs). The trail was always “flat” if not level
My hotel
My hotel is the orangish building to the left on the other side of Piazza Walthar. if that makes sense. In other words, you could push a baby stroller along the trail, although you may go uphill at times and downhill at times. It felt like a fair amount of uphill at times, but according to my map, Collalbo is 60 meters below Soprabolzano.
It really was a fantastic hike. The weather COULDN’T have been better. After two days of dark overcast and rain on Monday and Tuesday (the days I was on campus working with my colleagues) today we woke to a blue sky with only scattered clouds in the distant and temperatures right on the edge of coat weather. In the sun with my backpack on I was sweating. In the pine forest, definitely a coat was needed. In addition to the trees and meadows up close, I was constantly provided with vista views to distant snow-covered mountain peaks. I encountered cows, plenty of birds (including wild cuckoo birds which never cease to amaze me when you actually hear REAL cuckoo birds), and even a field of llama or alpaca or the like.
Originally, Collalbo was my destination, but when I got there I saw some signs for a place called Piramadi
Bolzano "from the air"
This was taken from the cable car window about three minutes into the 12 minute ride up the side of the mountain. di Terra - the earthen pyramids - about another 30-45 minutes from where I was at that point. It was still early so I went. This was a set of strange rock formations that do look something like steep walled pyramids. It LOOKS (and I am guessing because we were still a ways from them at the observation area) that many of these must have started with medium sized bolder of a very weather resistant rock sitting atop a fairly deep layer of a much more erosion susceptible rock. As the rains fell, they washed away much of the softer rock except for a cone of rock that lies directly under the upper dense rock. They were very interesting.
After walking back to Collalbo, I hopped the “Trenino Renon” which is an old wooden sided train that runs on a narrow gauge track from Collalbo back to Soprabolzano. This particular line is celebrating it’s 100th year of operation this year, and the local seem very excited about it. As we were waiting for our train to Soprabolzano, the previous train rolled into the station and it was a more modern metal one. Just as the first people tried to
Walk photo
Some random shots of what the view was like on my walk. board this train for the return trip, the conductor waved us off and up rolled this old wooden sided train. All of the “locals” (and by that, I mean anyone who doesn’t speak English so who knows where they were actually from) whipped out their cameras to take pictures.
I thought of Mom. She had tried to get us tickets on one of these in 1999 when Katie, Greg, Amy, and I all were together with mom and dad, but there was confusion about what we wanted and when the wooden sided train actually ran. I had a great time Mom, just for you!
After returning to Soprabolzano it was another cable car ride back down the mountain to Bolzano for a late lunch. I have time this afternoon for just a little more browsing of the shop lined streets and then I will grab one last sauna and start to pack. Tomorrow I have to be on a 9:00 AM train to Verona to begin the next round of Trains, Buses, and Planes as I move from Bolzano to Weisbaden to see the Salos.
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anonymous
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I want to go!!
Need I tell you that I am extremely jealous of your opportunity to be in northern Italy. I hope some day to return there. It is one of the nicest places in Europe. Your pictures were lovely.... Mom