You never know who you'll meet on the trail. Fortunately there's no language barrier with this local, so we chatted merrily for a few minutes and then tipped our hats/bells and went our ways.
While Jen is on a long planned two-week Italy adventure with three friends, Dave headed off to the mountains.
I've been wandering for a week now in the Dolomite range on the Italy/Austria border, a land of high meadows and fantastic stone peaks. I've had serene campsites each night, just birdsong and wind and rosy sunsets and sunrises. Stayed a night at a hut high on Tierser pass, and descended one of the famous "via ferrata" (iron trails) where steel pins in the stone and cables give some measure of security as you search for footholds carved in the rock. Bathed in waterfalls and wandered through rock-bound meadows and secret valleys. Escaped a storm another night by staying with a family at the "malga" cabin they move up to each summer with their cows -- I slept in the shed. We had a nice visit while it hailed outside, with the little Italian we each knew -- they speak the local Ladin at home.
Today I start down out of the peaks, tomorrow back down to the villages, cell reception to send this post and get email, a bus down to dinner in Bolzano and the train south to my next mountain range: the Appenines. Can't wait to get an email from Jen -- wonder what she's been up to?
While Jen is on a long planned two-week Italy adventure with three friends, Dave headed off to the mountains.
I've been wandering for a week now in the Dolomite range on the Italy/Austria border, a land of high meadows and fantastic stone peaks. I've had serene campsites each night, just birdsong and wind and rosy sunsets and sunrises. Stayed a night at a hut high on Tierser pass, and descended one of the famous "via ferrata" (iron trails) where steel pins in the stone and cables give some measure of security as you search for footholds carved in the rock. Bathed in waterfalls and wandered through rock-bound meadows and secret valleys. Escaped a storm another night by staying with a family at the "malga" cabin they move up to each summer with their cows -- I slept in the shed. We had a nice visit while it hailed outside, with the little Italian we each knew -- they speak the local Ladin at home.
Today I start down out of the peaks, tomorrow back down to the villages, cell reception to send this post and get email, a bus down to dinner in Bolzano and the train south to my next mountain range: the Appenines. Can't wait to get an email from Jen -- wonder what she's been up to?
