Part Three: Trent

The final leg of the trip too took us to Trent, a ski tourism town and otherwise very nice place. We packed daypacks with what we would need for the hikes we'd planned, left our luggage with the hotel manager and caught the train out of Venice. The train took us through mostly the outskirts of towns and I was surprised by all the vineyards and orchards we passed.

Trent lacks the dramatic grandeur of Venice, but it was very beautiful. Mountains ring the city so there are ridges in every direction. The downtown radiates outward from a central fountain and it is a comfortable size. We walked around the better part of a day before we felt like we were seeing too much of the same thing. Impressive sights in Trento: the Fountain of Neptune, the frescoes that decorate the buildings along the main square, and the giant, wicker goose in the park across from the train station.

The next day we took the bus to a trailhead about an hour away and struck out for Edemolo, the inn (they call them refugios) where we we're scheduled to spend the first night. We weren't really in the Alps (only the Dolomites), but between the pitch of the climb and the slippery, scree-covered trail the first day was a fairly strenuous walk. The inn was wonderful as was the family who ran it.

We were apparently the first Americans to every stay there--the hostess told us during dinner that she hadn't guessed we were American because we weren't fat. (Incidentally, American tourists in northern Italy always get confused for Germans). We had a poor night's sleep in a dorm-style bedroom, a small, European-style breakfast of bread and coffee, and set out to the next inn

The walk wasn't nearly as difficult on the second day, but the Seven Saddles Inn where we stayed was remarkable. As a vegetarian, I mostly ate polenta (a regional favorite apparently) and what the dish may have lacked, the setting made up.

After a more restful night at Sette Selle we hiked back to the trailhead and caught back to the bus station.

We had a very lovely diner in Trent including some fantastic onion and rosemary bread, caught the train back to Venice the next morning, and flew out the next day. All and all a wonderful trip, but, I suppose that since I've been back in real life for close to a month now it's time for the blog to come back from vacation as well. Expect the next few posts to line up my fitness and diet goals for the rest of the year and, hopefully, schedule out a couple of races between now and December.