Saturday, October 5
Tirolo, Bolzano, Trentino-Alto Adige / Dorf Tirol, Bozen, Südtirol
Highlight: Morellino and crostini on the deck
Lowlight: Annie not feeling well
Saturday morning saw us up at 08:15 after an early night and hellish travel day the day before. My first glance, as I headed to the kitchen to rustle up some coffee, seemed to confirm that while it was still cloudy, today's weather would be nicer than yesterday's and absent rain. I decided this because the snow-capped mountains to the south behind Bolzano, the Dolomites, were finally visible unlike yesterday. The view from our deck is nearly south down the Adige Valley (Val d’Adige or Etschtal) towards Bolzano. Before starting in on the coffee, I watched a lot of Barn Swallows swooping by our deck.
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| First View of the Day in our Beautiful Suite |
Yesterday during her show and tell tour of the suite, Franziska showed me where the coffee was and also gave me a brief tutorial on how to use the coffee maker, a traditional Italian moka pot. This isn't your typical pour-over American coffee pot that we all know how to use instinctively. Moka pots have water in the bottom with a filter basket containing coffee above. The top pot screws on and heating the water in the bottom creates sufficient pressure to force the water up through the coffee.
I figured it out pretty readily and while some people swear by moka pot coffee, I was not really impressed with the results. I would try again the next several mornings and while the mechanics of making the coffee became second nature, I never did manage to produce coffee that I really wanted to drink. It may have been the coffee, the process, or more likely, the cook. In any case, I was surely looking forward to a big mug of steaming American coffee when I got home. Ann too.
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| Today I Learned How to Use a Moka Pot |
After coffee and a biscuit or two for breakfast, I was eager to go explore Dorf Tirol and take some pictures. Ann and I started down the driveway towards one of the trails leading down the hill to the village, but we did not make it far before Ann concluded that she was feeling too unwell to continue. Disappointed that she wasn't feeling up to it, I continued on.
The house where we were staying and, in fact, the entire village seem to be located inside a provincial park, Naturpark Texelgruppe, a vast park whose highlights are hiking the high mountains and visiting alpine lakes. It is also where Ötzi the Iceman was found. The area is laced with fairly well-signed trails and at the foot of our driveway sits the local path to the village, called the Apfelweg (the "apple trail"). Franziska told me to get back to the house to always look for Farmerkreuz on the signs. Farmerkreuz is apparently the crossing of two or more trails (Weges) where the farnhaus now sits and where a couple of old farms used to be.
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| Trail Signage Near our House |
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Our House is located at Farmerkreuz
The Diminutive -l is Typical in Austrian German
"Kreuz" is Cross(ing), "Kruezl" is Little Cross |
As I started down the steep trail towards the village center with no clear purpose in mind other than to take in what was around me, I could see that the pastures and orchards are carved out of forest. The sides of the paths and forest understory have a lot of plants that are familiar to me including black locust and hazelnuts. The larger trees besides the ubiquitous chestnuts are birch, walnut, beech, Norway Spruce, and one or more species of small-leaved highly lobate white oak with small acorns. Some of the acorns I noticed seem to be small but normal looking, while others are small but quite elongated. Flora-wise, I didn't feel like I was in a foreign country.
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| Never Seen So Many Chestnuts (Castanea sativa) in My Life |
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| Alpine Peak Through Walnut (l) and Birch (r) |
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| Bladder Campion: An Old Friend Escaped on the US East Coast |
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| Bladder Campion, Silene vulgaris, European Native |
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European Cousin to our Common and Moth Mulleins
White Mullein, Verbascum lychnitis |
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Greater Celandine, Chelidonium majus
Escaped and Often Invasive in the US |
The Apfelweg gets its name because it runs down into town through many steep apple orchards that are in full harvest now. The training system for their apple trees is largely unfamiliar to me, but I have seen it in Yakima. I noted that all the apple trees are netted and naturally I thought of bird netting, which makes no sense as the nets are only above the trees. Birds can and do fly under the nets through the open sides. And then it occurred to me that these are hail nets to keep those ice pellets from damaging the trees and their fruit. The local produce is not limited to merely apples; the path goes by pears, walnuts, and grapes.
As I worked my way down the steep hill into the outskirts of the village, I walked by several charming guest houses and small hotels, each with a little garden outside. It seems to me that Dorf Tirol is primarily a tourist town and a staging point for hikes into the mountains. Almost immediately I crossed under the cables for the Seilbahn (cable car) that many tourists use to gain access to the hiking trails in the upper park.
Now in town, the Apfelweg had become a sidewalk that I followed between houses and buildings. I soon found myself at a small piazza and Biergarten overlooking the two castles in town, Schloss Brunnenburg and Schloss Tirol, both of which I had seen from up above on our deck. This much closer view was really fascinating and I just had to go closer to see these structures.
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Biergarten Opposite Schloss Brunnenburg
Our Room is Just Left of the Top of the Forst Banner |
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| Our Room Upper Center Below Apple Trees |
I walked down into the gorge and over to Schloss Brunnenburg, built in the 1200s and former home of Ezra Pound. Then I hiked back up the stiff hill and through the pedestrian tunnel over to Schloss Tirol, the historic seat of the Counts of Tirol, for whom the province was named. The ancient province of Tirol is now divided between Austria and Italy. Here in Dorf Tirol, we’re in Italy about 7 miles from Austria. The original part of this castle, which has been modified, renovated, and added onto for centuries, was built before 1100.
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| Annie Waiting for my Return |
After a much desired shower and one much needed from a sweaty climb to the house, I put out a little lunch spread and we ate a couple bites for breakfast/lunch. Lunch complete, I showed Ann the photos she missed from my walk in the morning. Taking full advantage of the first sun we had seen in days, we spent the remainder of the afternoon soaking up the sun on the deck. From time to time as the light changed, I shot some more photos.
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| Lights of Meran |
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