In the Alps

Monday night - We are in Castelrotto, near the Austrian border, and we are hearing much more German spoken than Italian. We were starting to understand a little Italian, but the German is hopeless. We just say "danke schoen" a lot. All of the signs are in both languages, and sometimes we can recognize an Italian word, and a German word from a different part of the sign, and put them together to figure out what it says.

After a long driving day Friday, from Bomerano (above Amalfi Coast, near Naples) to Verona, we spent Saturday in Venice. For part of the day, we were in Murano, looking at amazing glass decorative art pieces and going to "Glasstress 2011," a modern art exhibition of incredible glasswork. Back in Venice, the walks and waterways were very crowded and very fun.

Sunday was an easy day, walking around Verona in the morning and making the short drive up here in the afternoon. We stopped in Bolzano and went to a museum featuring Otzi, the ice man from about 3200 BC found near here. They're celebrating the 20th anniversary of his discovery, and while the exhibition was a little corny (video of someone saying "right here, in this kitchen, is where I thought up the name 'Otzi' to call him"), overall it was pretty cool.

Today was a long hike past cows and up a mountain, finding more cows at the top and wondering how they got there. It was Claire's first experience with cows around (and in) the trail. The hike started and ended the proper Alpine way, with a chairlift, and we had an apple struedel at one of the huts partway along the trail. We had to race back to get to the chairlift before it stopped running, to avoid an additional mile-plus of downhill hiking beyond what we wanted to do, but we made it.

Tomorrow, more Alpine experiences, but maybe an easier hike.

P.S. This is Claire--a highlight of our time in Verona was seeing the (fake) balcony supposedly belonging to Juliet. The small courtyard was crowded full of tourists like us and the walls were absolutely covered in graffiti, most of which involved two names and a heart. When we got to Venice and Murano, I was very disappointed that there was no actual glassblowing going on, but some of the glass pieces we saw in the stores were gorgeous. The little town where we are staying now feels very Alpine. Yes, there were cows wandering across the trail in front of us, and tonight there was a Knodelfest (dumpling party) in the town square. I have had songs from The Sound of Music stuck in my head all day, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.