Blogs from Trentino Alto Adige, Italy, Europe - page 10

Day 31 A quick divert, Possibly to escape the crowds, or maybe the toilet we were situated next to. We decided to head north, by the Lake side road of Garda towards the Dolomites. They were not like the Alps, they had their own unique formation - more teeth-like than pointed. Since we arrived in Italy we had been slightly disappointed, we had covered approximately 2000 miles roads were quiet, lots of open country side. But as we got to the Lakes it was quite built up and the traffic was horrendous. As we travelled North along Lake Garda the traffic thinned, it was less built up- it was far more like we were expecting of Lake Garda, beautiful towns- and the Lake, unlike Maggiore and Como, it is a turquoise blue, more like the Interlaken ... read more

Magic! I woke early to open the curtains and found a winter wonderland. “Lindsay, you’ve got to get out of bed to see this. Come on. It’s special”. “Huh, grunt”, but he did get up to look. What a contrast from yesterday. Last night we had rain and thunder in the mountains and then awoke to an almost whiteout of snow blanketing the landscape and cloud coming and going. We couldn’t leave until the snow plough came in and cleared the road. Rather ironic that it’s so hot down by the coast and so cold here. But it does make for a good night’s sleep. There was about 6 inches of snow on the ground and the trees were covered. We were supposed to pick Diego up from the station at Cortina but that wasn’t possible. ... read more

A sleep in this morning before we departed for Italy - jusy 45 minutes from Seefeld. it was not snowing today - but as we climbed up toward the Brenner pass - the temperature droipped from+7C to +0.5C - just cold enough to get some snow flurries. Our destination was Bressanone/Brixen, a town of around 15,000 and just 30 kms from the border. They have a neat Christmas MArket here, as well as an impressive cathedral and monastery. Due to it being so close to X-mas, we encountered a traffic jam getting into the old town area. What should have taken us 10 minutes took around 25 minutes. The town was crowded with other sightseers. There was not as much snow as last year - when we saw several snowmen that had been built in the ... read more

Very lucky with the weather today, even with snow at the top of the Stelvio. That is one long climb and bitterly cold descent. Took a different route to planned after that as there was no way I'd be able to get over the Monte Giovo before sunset, and couldn't afford to lose another 2 hours. So I went via Bolzano and am now somewhere about 15 miles NorthEast of there. Nothing much else to say really other than 3 days left, planned stops are out now and it's just as far as possible each day... ... read more

Ciao a tutti! I'm just going to get right into it... Italian Nightlife Italian summers are full of parties. Of course there are discos (clubs) which can be really cool with multiple dance floors and outdoor locations. But each little town has a summer party with tables of food and drinks for the whole family and a band and dance floor. Some bigger towns have larger parties where you can walk around to different little parties with different food and music and people. And remember that this is all taking place outside, in classic Italian towns with cobblestones, fountains, churches, etc. The concept is just beautiful. And then there are festivals which are almost the same thing but they may have a theme and last for days, like Art in the Street in Verduno where street ... read more