Microblog
Venice is incredibly cool. There are the canals of course, but walking the city is an adventure too. The walking paths are narrow with buildings looming over them. Nothing forms a right angle. Paths will go 100 feet and then dump you into a small piazza, or you’ll arrive at a bridge over a canal, or the path will just dead end into the water. You never know until you get there. The effect is a rabbit warren of paths that we inevitably got lost in. Thank God for Google maps!
Catching up on the last few days… We arrived by train in Venice the day before yesterday. The first order of business was to hop on a “vaparetto” (or water bus) and get to St. Mark’s Square which is where our hotel was located. We thought it would be a nice way to see Venice’s Grand Canal during the trip. We got on the right
line, but going the wrong direction. So instead of taking in the sights of the Grand Canal, we were treated to a tour of the lagoon and the industrial district. But at least we got to the right place. #travel
Pro tip: If you find yourself in Venice and looking for a lunch spot, look for where the gondoliers are eating. They know where the good food is! #travel #food
The plan was to hike the “Trail of the Witches”, a hike that starts at high elevation then descends fairly gently back to Compatsch. I was expecting chilly temps for the hike, but we arrived to find snow on the ground, and a steady wind that made it feel even colder. Trail conditions alternated between slippery with ice and slippery with mud. Under the conditions, we decided to skip the most exposed sections, instead taking a shortcut to a mountain hut (where we warmed ourselves with hot chocolate and apple strudel) before descending back to Compatch. Altogether, it was about 5 miles. #travel
This morning we took a bus to Seis, and then took a cable car to the Seiser Alm, a huge Alpine meadow surrounded by the Dolomite mountains. Once the cable car delivered us to Compatsch (the village closest to Seiser Alm), we took the Puflatsch gondola up again to Puflatsch Berg (elevation 6,952 feet). #travel
Yesterday evening we had an excellent dinner at Vögele (https://www.voegele.it). They serve mostly German and Austrian food (befitting the local taste), with the occasional ravioli and risotto thrown in. An interesting twist is that they seemed to only serve wine by the 1/2 liter in carafes. But this wasn’t simple vino de la casa. This was very good wine from producers I recognized (like Produttori del Barbaresco).I got the Knödel and Goulash. They were delicious. #travel #food #wine
Yesterday was a travel day. We hired a car to drive us from Malcesine to the nearest train station in Rovereto, then took the train to Bolzano. The province that Bolzano is in (Alto Adige) was part of Austria until after World War I, so this is a Germanic people. German is just as widely spoken as Italian in Bolzano, and German is the dominant language in the countryside. After arriving in Bolzano, we took a cable car to Renon while we waited for our room to be ready. #travel
Today we took the ferry across Lake Garda to the village of Limone sul Garda. As its name suggests, Limone is famous for its lemon groves. Apparently, a few hundred years ago, Limone used to trade their lemons for Malcesine’s olives and olive oil. As a result, lemons became a kind of currency in the area. Even today, Limone is “all in” on their lemon branding. You can buy lemons, lemonade, limoncello, even lemon stuffed with lemon sorbetto. #travel #food
