Northern Italy Highlights

The opening line is always the hardest. Once I start writing it just kind of comes. But sometimes I spend ages trying to figure out how to begin. Fortunately I’ve got that over with already and so I can now commence “just writing.” 

Oh yes – this is a no photo post, since my photos are on my camera and my camera cable is in the tent across the river and I’m not going to fetch it. Sorry, I will try and post more photos soon.

It’s Arco right now. Northern Italy. What a sweet town. (I mean that as in “schweet” and not “Biggie Best”, although it is really cute too.) Arco will be hosting the 2011 climbing world champs. There are mountains all around and I love that. I am a mountain junkie. It’s not quite the Dolomites (we’re going there next) but it’s still very relaxing for me to have hills and cliffs all around me. We’re staying at “Camping Zoo”, which is just a km or so out of Arco. So we walk in to town every day or second day for groceries and stuff. It’s doing my fitness levels a lot of good and my blisters a lot of harm. We're very happy with Camping Zoo. It’s about 500m further out of town than Camping Arco, but I think it’s worth it. Not only is it a couple of Euros a day cheaper, but the atmosphere is enjoyable. It’s relaxed. The people seem to be here less for a massive party and more to experience a chilled holiday with their families. People cycle everywhere. They walk. They rollerblade. (I was dead keen to buy myself a pair of rollerblades but try fitting those into a backpack…) They climb. 

Every night we eat supper at a wooden table and bench next to our tent. I have wine. It’s less than 1 Euro for a litre carton (re-sealable) of red wine. That’s cheaper than I can get it in SA! And the wine is pretty tasty too. Plonk, but very yummy plonk. During the day we wade across the icy, icy, icy river and sit in the shade and work on our laptops. Then, when it cools down a bit we putter in to town or off to a crag or (once) to the local pizza joint. It’s a delightfully peaceful existence. I am enjoying it a lot more than I did Mallorca. It’s not as hot during the day and we have lovely shady trees all around. It’s also great to be based in one spot and not to be haring about from place to another with ten tons of crap in a backpack. 

Highlights of the past week:
Via Ferratta – What fun!!! For those not in the know, a via ferratta is something in between hiking and rock climbing. It’s a route up a mountain (or cliff, or canyon) that is artificially protected with iron cables and stemples (big staples in the rock) and pegs. You need a climbing harness and via ferratta gear. Oh yes – gloves are highly recommended. The gear consists of a shock absorbing device, incorporating some dynamic rope. You clip the middle bit to your harness and then you have two “tails” each with a carabiner on the end. You clip the tails to the cables and off you go – attached to the cables by two ropes. You get easy routes, on which you hardly need the safety gear. (Yes Mum, I promise I am using it anyway. Um…. most of the time…) And you get hard routes which could just about be climbing routes. We’ve done two so far. One super easy route opposite the camp site, which was really just a scramble. And then we did a day trip to Castello de Drena for a slightly harder one. It was so awesome! A route up a small canyon, walls water-smoothed by centuries, which used to be used as the escape route from the castle in old times. It was pretty, it was fun, it was slightly athletic – I thoroughly enjoyed it. There was also a cool wire bridge across the canyon. Three wires – you walk on one of them and you hold the others in your sweaty little paws. If you are even slightly athletic and you go to the northern Italy/Germany region you must must must do at least one via ferratta. I cannot recommend it strongly enough. They are fantastic. I wish I had my photos on my computer to share some of them with you!

Castello de Drena – At the end of the via ferratta we coughed up the 2.50 Euros each and nipped into Castello de Drena. This is a ruined and now somewhat restored castle in the very small town of Drena. We were accosted by an excited employee. We couldn't understand a word he said, but he was very keen for us to do something. We eventaully gave up and followed him, after surrendering my passport. The suspense…..! Turns out he wanted us to climb to the top of the tower. Why us? Not sure. He didn’t accost anyone else while we were there. Perhaps we had that manic “we are adrenalin junkies who have just finished the via ferratta” look in our eyes. He hustled us off to the tower, unlocked the door for us and shut us in, giving us strict sign language instructions to close the door when we came out. And then off he went. We climbed to the top and had a gorgeous view of the mountains in 360 degrees. The wind blew in from hundreds of miles away, danced over our faces and then rushed off again. Stunning. Down we came, retrieved my passport and left with the castle employees smiling happily after us. We then had to walk 2 km or so to Dro because Drena is so small that only two busses run per day and we had missed them. From Drena we caught a bus back to Arco. Wish we had such useful public transport in SA….

Arco Market – Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!!! We encountered this on our way to the via ferrata in Drena. It surprised us in Arco town. Luckily the bus only left for Drena an hour after we got into Arco, so I had a short while to putter about. I bought myself a lovely t-shirt for 2 Euros and a super cute dress for 10 Euros (brought down from 25 Euros for market day – ooooooh the scrooge in me rejoiced at the bargain!) Even with an exchange rate of nearly 12 to 1, that’s pretty good going in Rand terms. I was very sad that I didn’t have more time to rootle further. I saw a lot of stuff that was incredibly cheap and so different to the things in SA. I would have loved to have bought more. To my great regret and to N’s utter relief and delight, we had to leave the market and catch a bus. 

The Watermelon Party - Last Saturday, Camping Zoo sprung upon us ….. a watermelon party! Open to all campers, and entirely free, it was a delightful surprise. They had piles of watermelons, which they cut up and gave out in slices. Eat as much as you like. We did. We ate. We liked. Then they brought out the entertainment. We had a mini-circus. A fat man lay on his back and twirled logs and wooden boards. Someone else threw knives at a pretty girl. A lady did some fire eating. Then they brought out a massive bowl of cheese and more watermelon. We guzzled. The cherry on the top of the evening was the candy floss machine! What circus is complete without candy floss? I scrummaged for a candy floss for N, who wasn’t sure that it was entirely fitting for a 33 year of man to be elbowing children out of the way in his quest for candy floss…. This 34 year old women had no such compunction. After we polished off the candy floss we wisely decided not to get another one and waddled off to bed, replete and content. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening and reinforced our liking for Camping Zoo. (Note to others, that you may learn from my mistakes – do not eat vast quantities of watermelon straight before bedtime. I was up five times during the night to pee.)

I was going to make this a highlights and lowlights post, but I see how long it is getting. I think I will post the lowlights in a separate post.