http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Trentino-Alto-Adige/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Europe , Italy , Trentino Alto Adige en-us Fri, 05 Dec 2008 01:07:39 UTC Fri, 05 Dec 2008 01:07:39 UTC This is Jorgen's account of the Pergine Castle which we woke up to every morning in Italy. Jeff took the kids one afternoon. I had to sit this one out as I was battling some severe hip pain and knew I wouldn't be able to make the hike in. Just to give you a little background apparently many of the castles in Italy are privately owned as they are expensive to maintain. Many are converted t http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Trentino-Alto-Adige/blog-347835.html Bolzano Ten days in the sky If you enjoy the excitement of exploring the worlds wonders coupled with the Baccean joy of indulging in local wines Think South Tryol think The Dolomites. This region in Northern Italy is so far north that half the population speaks German which is great as it means you get Italian style and cafes hand in hand with great salamis and fabulous cheeses. All just a http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Trentino-Alto-Adige/Bolzano/blog-346328.html The morning following our trip to Venice was glorious sunny not a cloud in the sky and close to 70 degrees. Rudi Rudi is Mariarsquos first cousinrsquos Italian husband declared that it was a perfect day to head to the mountains. I thought I had time for a quick run before we left but in my typical state of oblivion I failed to realize that the plan was to leave pronto so we could get l http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Trentino-Alto-Adige/blog-343204.html Wersquore lucky to have connections. My cousin Mary has lived with her husband and two girls in Northern Italy for about 14 years. As a lover of all food especially anything remotely resembling pasta bread or cheese Irsquove wanted to experience Italy and all that it has to offer foodwise. To do so in a country famous for breathtaking views is a bonus. Jeff and I saw the girlrsquos http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Trentino-Alto-Adige/blog-338938.html passo dello stelvio stilfserjoch and on into Switzerland Shaken not StirredI guess there are other easier ways to get from Italy to Switzerland and I hadnrsquot really mentioned these to Jen. She didnrsquot seem to mind the idea of going over the Stilvio Pass. I would have been keener myself if it wasnrsquot for the rainhellip..The Stelvio pass httpen.wikipedia.orgwikiStel http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Trentino-Alto-Adige/Stelvio-National-Park/blog-324211.html I just came back from an absolutely gorgeous part of the Alps the Dolomites. I went there on Monday to join Lukas and a group of pilots who were there for a flight safari. We stayed in Campitello di Fassa which is situated at the bottom of the Col Rodella from which we were to fly.I joined the group on Monday night for dinner. There were as usually only three hangglider pilots Andr Dieter http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Trentino-Alto-Adige/Bolzano/blog-323512.html Yay photos A whole bunch of themAnyways. Monday made my head whirl. First there was a train ride to the ItalySlovenia border which was mostly interesting because of the weather. When I left the hostel it was cloudy and foggy and cold 6 minutes of tunnel later it was blazing hot and sunny on the other side of the mountain without a cloud in sight.Then I changed trains in the border town o http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Trentino-Alto-Adige/Trento/blog-316494.html We had one weekend off during camp and so a bunch of us counselors drove to a lake in the very northern part of Italy with a fascinating history. I was going to write some of it here but I will just take the shortcut and give the link to the Wikipedia article if you want some background on this cool place. httpen.wikipedia.orgwikiLakeResia http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Trentino-Alto-Adige/Bolzano/blog-310801.html Blogorrhea I am quickly becoming a man of few words and many pictures with lots of words in the captions. We have covered quite a bit of ground at breakneck speed so it is somewhat hard to digest it into a coherent narrative. What I can declare however is that the 17 day 6 country no wash ex officio underwear is a complete myth. It is perchance a pathway to the eurobackpacker mystique http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Trentino-Alto-Adige/Bolzano/blog-306237.html First update from the almost 1000 meters of Landeck in the Tyrolean Alps. A day of rest where apart from ensuring a minimum of maintenance to Rocinante I'm in full immersion in the art of eating breakfast at 10 half a ton of junkfood at lunchtime and now a rich snack of coffee and cake. And itrsquos only 5pm. Sometimes I suspect I cycle 100 kms per day just to allow myself to consequently http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Trentino-Alto-Adige/Resia-Pass/blog-304360.html Venice SO COOL Did you know that Venice is made up of 117 islands It makes sense doesn't it that a city famous for its nurmerous canals that those canals carve up the land into islands But I hadn't ever thought of it that way. So every bridge Jan and I walked across was fun because we were crossing over to another island by just walking over a bridge The canals do make Venice a speci http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Trentino-Alto-Adige/Trento/blog-295360.html Hi Just a quick note to let you know we are safe in Dro It was really awkward at first haha the first people we met interrogated Ian and Dillon a little bit haha they had to prove they were family by naming like a dozen people in different pictures which is kinda difficult for them haha. Everyone else is great and it turns out some of them were in San Diego over 10 years ago and they had 4 http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Trentino-Alto-Adige/Trento/blog-294771.html Thursday 19th JuneAnother early start and an efficient packup and wersquore soon en route to the campsite in CarsquoVio. Verona is also not a possibility for a stop as itrsquos too far for Freddiersquos drivers hours but we take a chance on Trento for an hour which actually turns out to be the perfect size for this kind of stop and turns out to be the city of painted walls. Very nic http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Trentino-Alto-Adige/Trento/blog-291633.html Monday was a sleepin day for almost everzone. Lunch was good. I had pizza and deer carpaccio the latter was a new thing for me. Afterward several of us wanted to do laundry. Apparently laundromats are unheard of in that part of Italy so we wound up doing a couple loads at a neighboring hotel. Appliances run much more slowly here. The afternoon was spent in town. We sang in public once http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Trentino-Alto-Adige/blog-280742.html Valentines Day in Verona home of Romeo Giulietta Romeo Juliet.Verona is a beautiful small Italian city in the Veneto region and is known as piccolo Roma little Rome due the Roman Arena a small version of Rome's Colosseo. The lovely old town centre is built around the stunning Arena and the many cafes in Piazza Bra pedestrian only alleyways filled with great shops Bolzano the Al http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Trentino-Alto-Adige/Bolzano/blog-249575.html This morning dawned way too early again but with ski departure of nine thirty planned for the others not me donrsquot get your hopes up we needed an early start. First we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast thanks to one latecomer and then the skiers were off. My dad and I packed up some of our things in anticipation of tomorrowrsquos departure and then rested downstairs reading and na http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Trentino-Alto-Adige/Mareo/blog-238035.html Despite a decided lack of sleep only two hours thank you jet lag I was ready to go and determined to ski when I got up this morning. We had a lovely quiet breakfast at La Bercia and then rushed around assembling and donning our required gear. First stop La Ski Point for some rentals. Uh oh now I was committed.To be our ski instructor we had roped in La Bercia's owner's son for the http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Trentino-Alto-Adige/Mareo/blog-238034.html Alors je suis arrive finalement I know I know Irsquom not traveling to any Frenchspeaking countries on this trip but Irsquom practicing for my upcoming French class. And the arrival of our French lawyer later tonight. But anyway letrsquos begin at the beginning.I left New Jersey on Tuesday evening just about making it to the airport in the allotted time since my carrsquos dri http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Trentino-Alto-Adige/Mareo/blog-238032.html hoi leiti sitz heinte no in ufo in meindo hoamatstodt ban an spritz und tescht is erschte mol den blog... also bitte stellt koana onsprche an qualitt und kreativitt... fotos bin i fleiig ban schiassen mei canon muiss a win ingiwermb wearn. obbo innestell kimmp a erscht. guit weil einiga leit des dialektes et mchtig san wer i wo groatoals umscholtn af hoachdeitsch zwischndurch logisch di http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Trentino-Alto-Adige/Bolzano/blog-216599.html Easily found a hotel for tonight...phew Had a fantastic lunch of ravioli and gnochi... I can tell Im going to love eating in Italy Walked around the town center a bit went underground to the Tridentum La Citta Sotterranea where archaeological remains of the Roman city can be seen... interesting Visited St. Trento Cathedral then decided to go for a drive and got totally lost for 23 hours in http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Trentino-Alto-Adige/Trento/blog-209965.html tzi is the 4000 yearold ice man discovered in the Dolomites by a husband and wife hiking in 2001. Since there are often hikers who disappear and are discovered in the spring they werenrsquot aware of the significance of their discovery until much later. Apparently there was much fighting over the find between Austrian and Italian authorities until it was proven that tzi was found 30 met http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Trentino-Alto-Adige/Bolzano/blog-207044.html Our Innkeeper in Salzburg highly recommended Murano Italy so we thought we would see if we wanted to stay there even though it wasn't on our initial itinerary... not that we really have one. But figured we were driving through Innsbruck first so if the weather wasn't too bad would stay there as originally planned.Innsbruck was beautiful but the weather was aweful so drove on. We did see the O http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Trentino-Alto-Adige/Trento/blog-206416.html An hour's drive north of Trento is town of Bolzano which is bilingual Italian and German. We spent time walking around the old part of town and enjoying the fine cuisine with its cultural mix. We visited the archaeological museum and saw Ozti the iceman a mummy found in a glacier near the Austrian border that dates back 5300 years. On our second day we rode a cable car up to Soprabolzano http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Trentino-Alto-Adige/Bolzano/blog-201479.html We left Strigno and instead of taking the valley road to Trento we travelled via the mountains to the tiny town of Lausan one of the Austrian strongholds during the wars. Trento is a Roman town founded in 1BC. The annual medieval archery tournament of Palio delle Contrade held between the 8 town segments or contrade was being held in the old town square. People were wearing period costume an http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Trentino-Alto-Adige/Trento/blog-201477.html As one of our last trips on this trip Amanda and I drove to Bolzano an independent province close to the Italian Austrian border. Mapquest said it'd take just under three hours but in reality it took close to foura combination of the inevitable heavy traffic on the autostrada and getting lost in circles of oneway streets and dead ends once we got to Bolzano. This time after our accommodat http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Trentino-Alto-Adige/Bolzano/blog-199331.html We left for Bolzano on a Tuesday because we felt like drinking a hot chocolate the consistency of warm pudding mind you in the snow. As it turns out we stepped into a valley surrounded by mountains with canopies of bursting grapes climbing the Alps around us. There was no snow and no hot chocolate but plenty of German beer and Goulash. Itrsquos a nice change I think we are going to lik http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Trentino-Alto-Adige/Bolzano/blog-199238.html We are staying in an old hotel in the township of Strigno which is in a central location to Tony's 10 cousins that live in the region. We have had many meals with the family and are spending time acquainting ourselves with the region. http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Trentino-Alto-Adige/blog-189222.html So I went to Switzerland after all and it was lots of fun. Went up a mountain in Luzern with Karin's little sister Maya. It was really beautiful and the weather was quite nice until the day after when it started to hail again. It was fucking crazy. It was falling ice cubes from the sky and the rain was also falling down and Karin had to close les volets and got hit by the ice cubes. The day after http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Trentino-Alto-Adige/Trento/blog-185072.html God thought with his sense of humor and it shall be... that on Thursday morning Joni shall wake up and make plans to go to an unknown country where she doesnt know the language... HA this should be funny... and reinforced this by making England rainy and cold making Joni cranky for lack of rock climbing. and so it was that on Thursday I woke up and said Hey I'm going to go to Italy I http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Trentino-Alto-Adige/blog-169922.html 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. No http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Italy/Trentino-Alto-Adige/Bolzano/blog-163894.html