Tagliata De Manzo

 I eat a pretty low carb diet, not Keto anymore most days but close. Here in Italy everything is carbs: Pasta, Pizza, Calzone…well you get the idea. My saving grace has been Tagliata De Manzo (pronounced Tah-lee-ah-ta de man-so). It’s on every menu and basically it’s a sliced steak on arugula with some grana padano cheese (the poor cousin of Parmesan). It’s relatively cheap steak (like $25 to $35) and a decent beefy cut weighting in between a half to three quarters of a pound. Here in northern Italy/South Tirol they always serve it with potato’s…which is fine I can mostly ignore those as I’m not a huge potato fan. Probably four nights out of seven this is my dinner here.

Hike to Ritten

 Got out for a hike today. We had no destination in mind so we chose one randomly - a hike to Klobenstein (Also known as the heart of Ritten - many of these places have multiple names). Turns out this was a favorite area of Sigmund Freud and the walk had benches with quotes from him. Wasn’t inspired by that but I understand why he liked the area.

Lots of choices about where to go. Well marked with even estimated hiking times.

Some of the spectacular scenery on this hike

A heart shaped rock on the trail

Obligatory selfie on the hike

Meadows and farms with the Dolomites in the background

Through meadows

Hmm. Which way. Actually trails are really well marked and it’s easy to pick and follow a hike.

Meadow with Dolomites in the background

Some amazing views of the Dolomites

The paths wound through the countryside but also skirted homes

Probably can’t see it in this photo but this said it was a restaurant. I’m skeptical

These “Snow in Summer” flowers were all over

Returning down the cable car…Fran was fine and even managed a smile!

Beautiful day and spectacular scenery in the Dolomites. And for the record a little over ten miles on the day.

Language

 I was just getting used to Italian...then we came far north to the Dolomites. The dialect of Italian is significantly different here from central Italy. It's hard for me to understand the dialect. Even common words like glass (Biccere) are different here (Chalice). I'm picking it up but slowly. Good news is they speak a bunch of German here. Bad news is I don't remember much German. It's hard to tune my ear to a new language. I've joked that I can ask for a pencil or a lamp in German, but that's about it. Although, I was asked in a restaurant this evening "Alles Gute?" (Is everything good?) And I responded "Sehr Gute!" (Very good) kind of automatically. Maybe there's hope?

Bolzano

 Made it to Bozen/Bolzano. A few pics from our walks around town.

Off to Bolzano

 As we walked to the train station carting our luggage we saw a string quartet that had been serenading us all morning

Note about hotels

Text only. Off to Bolzano/Bozen this morning but I want to write a quick note about the hotels we’ve stayed in to date (so I remember for next time).

Milan. The Phillip Plein Hotel. Five stars for sure but weird. Like 15 rooms with mirrors on the ceiling and reflective surfaces every where. I’d stay again but I’d also look for different hotels. Nothing against it it was just to “influencer” for me.

Varenna. Villa Cisipressi. No. Too spartan and the hotel by day was crowded by influencers want their picture taken by lake Como.

Bergamo. Hotel Gombit. All they way do it again. We got the biggest suite (it really wasn’t that expensive). Hotel is in the center of the old town. Great shower and good staff. 

Verona. Hotel Gabbia D’oro. Again great staff. But this was a really old hotel. Furnished as an old hotel with put’s Fran off. I liked the place (kind of like staying in a medieval castle). The shower sucked unfortunately so I likely won’t stay there again.

Desenzano. Park Hotel. Naw. We stayed in the newish wing but it was both spartain and had one oof those weird bath shower things going on. I hate showers that you can’t keep the water away from the bathroom floor. Staff were nice enough but the place charged you for water (most places give you a couple of bottles a day).

Trento. Calepina Alpine Suites. Our first B&B. Both inexpensive and small (only 5 rooms). Staff, when they are aroud, are nice but they’re not around much. Lovely rooms great bath etc. Would I stay again? Maybe. I kind of like front desk service but the amenities of this place make up for lack of staffing. In all fairness they are there if you call but it’s easier to talk to a person. A quick thought though. This is right next to and above a bar that stays open late.  Not terrible noise but some. If you are a light sleeper be warned. 

Schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley

As Robbie Burns said “ The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley”. We were supposed to take a bike ride this afternoon and do some wine tasting. Nothing strenuous, we were going to ride for a few hours through the Dolomites and visit a few wineries. But it’s still raining. So instead we decided to take a hike (ok turned into more of a strenuous walk - mostly cobblestone steps up and up and up 40 flights and a bit more than three miles round trip) to Parco Doss Trento. Great views from the top and a WWI monument. Hey we burned calories and found a way to spend a pleasant afternoon. Here we are doing our thing.

Trento

 So yesterday’s rain kind of threw us off. It was a torrential downpour. We did yesterday’s agenda this morning (toured Trento on foot). We hope to get out, even in the rain, for a hike this afternoon. Here are a few shots from around town on our morning walk/tour. Twisty cobblestone streets where Italy meets Germany, each seemly taking the best of each other in terms of architecture and food. Beautiful place and I’d like to return here (maybe in better weather?)

Made it to Trento

 Um…it’s very wet

Desenzano

 Ok. My evaluation of this town. It’s a nice place to stop. Maybe not three nights but two. Probably the best thing to do (which we didn’t) would be to rent a bike and head out the peninsula to Sirmione. We took the ferry and it was fun but I think, if you go, biking would be better. My take? Fun resort town (we hit it pre season) but not necessarily my cup of tea. We’re off to the Dolomites tomorrow (Trento and then Bozen) which will have more spectacular hikes so I’m excited about that. In the mean time here are a few Desenzano picture.

Sigh

 I’ve mentioned before about the “Vacation from Vacation.” A time when you just kind of collapse from the stress of planning and travel and let go. Well today ended up being that day. We were going to ride bikes from Desenzano to parts unknown but just couldn’t bring ourselves to get out of bed early enough this AM. We’re a little over 2/5th into our trip (two weeks) and we both sort of collapsed from the pace. This isn’t to say we did nothing, we visited the Castle in Desenzano, and walked along the shoreline both directions. According to my watch over seven miles. I think this is about the minimal daily walk since we started our vacation (sans airplane days). It was nice to have a slow day.

Sirmione

 We’re ferrying to a lot of little gems on this trip (Bellagio). Today was no exception we took the ferry over lake Garda to Sirmione. Lovely little place and I’d love to stay there. Had the best pasta of the trip there for lunch (I had spaghetti olio alio a pepperenccino and Fran had tagliatelle with bolognese) . Photos of the voyage (not the food) below: