Blogs from Trentino Alto Adige, Italy, Europe - page 7

Day 10 Thursday July 18. With adequate improvement in Chris’ knee, we decided to join the ‘easier’ walking group again today. Today we head off by chartered bus over into the next valley. We walked to the gondola which again took us to a high plane. Today’s walk sees us head off to a distant ‘Hutte’ along a fairly rambling and undulating track – but not too many difficult ups or downs before lunch. That all sounds too easy so Hughie decided to step in and throw rain at us for the first time on a walk. Chance to test all of our wet weather gear. The surrounding thunderstorms were a little worrying as we were very exposed but they were safely distant. Lots of different wild flowers here – including a couple of Lily varieties ... read more

Day 7 Monday July 15. Breaky and sandwich routine is second nature now as we head off to our hard walk. We leave on the Gondola right in the middle of town and we would return on the same equipment later. The walk is again on the high plain and effectively walking right around a huge mountain. This way we get to see into the next valley along as well as all of the way to Austria. The walk was stated as 9 miles (14kms) but in fact this was an unfortunate slip of the tongue as it turned out to be 20kms! This was important as discussed later….. The walk is graded difficult not only because of the distance but also because of the elevation gain and loss (900metres each for this walk – and ... read more

Day 5 Saturday July 13. Admin day/ Checkout and across to the station for our trip to Bolzano. All went well although we did lose wifi at ¾ time of the Port Hawthorn game and the game was still in the balance …… As you would imagine, qwe left with plenty of time and were the first in our coach on the train. Just as well as the luggage capacity was minuscule although we did eventually find room for our two largest bags. The rest went into the overhead. The train was packed with cases lying everywhere. Fast and comfortable although there wasn’t much leg room. Countryside was interesting and we got into farming land more quickly than we thought. Passed through Florence and Verona and a few other stops. It was interesting to note the ... read more

Missing our daily gelatos but there is nothing we can do as there are no stores selling them here! We both woke this morning short of breath and we can only put it down to the altitude of about 1400 mtrs above sea level we are at.Hopefully that won't put us off some walks we have got planned for the next couple of days. When we arrived yesterday the temperature was cold and it is easy to see why spring is only just coming to the area with the flowering trees yet to break their buds and green leaves only just starting to show.However in contrast the grass on the mountainside around the houses is green,very green almost as if the grass has said 'right,now the snow cover has gone I am really going to do ... read more

Terwijl het in Nederland meer herfstvakantie dan kerstvakantie leek, vertrokken Baukje, Marjolein en ik met de trein richting Italie in de hoop op meer winters weer! Na een lange treinreis en busrit van anderhalf uur kwamen we aan in het dorp Cogolo waar we in een gezellig familiehotel met de meest bizarre voorwerpen en schilderingen verbleven. Marjolein en ik werden ook nog elke dag als we de kamer uitliepen verblijd met een 3D-foto van een hond met tong uit de bek en boven ons bed drie herten die ons maar bleven aanstaren. Toen werd ons nog een driegangenmenu voorgeschoteld, maar wij kozen om tien uur 's avonds alleen voor wat groente en pasta... De eerste dag was meteen een conditietest, omdat tijdens die tocht ook direct zo'n 1000 hoogtemeters overwonnen moesten worden. Na drie weken grieperig/verkoudheid ... read more