Belluno to Trento

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After breakfast our day started with a lovely walk into the centre of Belluno as we were staying on the outskirts. Despite being on a main road, the walk itself was beautiful as everywhere you turned there were incredible views of the Dolimites. The Duomo in the town was rather beautiful and after a stroll around the historic centre we stopped for coffee and sweets. I accidentally had my first Italian espresso as I ordered coffee for mum but then changed to cappuccino, but they gave us both. It was so strong but so good. We walked back to the hotel, spent some time changing our hotel booking for Trento and then went on our merry way.

The drive to Trento was beautiful with pretty much uninterrupted views of the peaks and the villages and castles perched on the sides of the mountains. We checked in at Relais Villa Madruzzo in Cognola in the hills above Trento. Sadly there is construction work happening directly below our accommodation, so the beautiful views of the Dolimites were obstructed by a fence with covered in green cloth and a crane! After we settled in we set out for the centre of Trento. Driving down the windy, narrow road was hair-raising, as was trying figure out the maze of one-way streets. We were so lucky, we got a free parking spot near to the duomo. The impressive structure was first built in 397, though the current building is much older. Underneath you can see the ruins and foundations of the old church built to honour three Christian matyrs.

My father was anxious about the car, and rightly so. When we got back there was a parking ticket on the front of the car. I grabbed it and ran up to the parking officer we had passed as we walked to our car. As he talked on his two-way I waited, looking distressed. Then I explained that we didn’t understand and that we’d move the car and it’s so much money and he told me it was ok and that we wouldn’t have to pay. I’m not sure if he was telling the truth, but it was fun to put my high school drama lessons to use.

We drove off to find more parking, this time paying for it. We weren’t too far from the Castle and luckily it closed at 6pm, so we had an hour and a half to explore. The building itself was very impressive and afforded a fantastic view from the high balcony. Sadly they’d filled a lot of the space with a fairly unimpressive and completely unrelated museum exhibits. It was nice to wander around the castle particularly in the gardens and we were there around an hour in total.

Then began our adventure home. And what an adventure it was! The maze of one-way streets was even more confusing and it took over half an hour for us to make our way out of Trento! Exhausted from our epic journey, we relaxed a little prior to dinner. We ate at the hotel restaurant, with lovely views (partially obscured by trees) from the windows near our table. The food was delicious and I was able to order in Spanish and German as the waiter spoke very little English. Unfortunately my dad and I swapped our entrees by accident (and my main was the same as his entrée), so we stuffed around the waiters and the kitchen staff. But the food was great as was the service.

x Sarah

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