A series of articles about our first visit to Lake Garda in northern Italy. Staying at Riva del Garda, we would travel around the lake to various towns, visit both Venice and Verona, ride ferries down the lake, a tram in Renon and cable cars in the Dolomite mountains.
Clicking or tapping the photos below will take you to each of the articles. A link on each page will bring you back here.
Saturday 3 July 2003. We look back on an excursion again today, heading back into and up the Dolomite mountas via the Pass Pordoi.
Hairpin bends and spectacular views were the order of the day.
There was a familiar voice as another Leger party got on the coach. I turned to see Christina who had been our guide in Amsterdam! "I take you round the red light district here?" she shouted down the length of a suddenly stunned silent coach...
Ever wondered what the Winter Olympics ski jumps look like in summer? Scary. They look scary!
We reached the Pordoi Pass. This reaches an altitude of 2,239 metres (7,346 ft) and we started climbing 9.4 kilometres (5.84 miles) ago with an average gradient of 6.8% - glad I wasn't travelling by pushbike... Helena, our guide for the day, was soon booking tickets for us all to go up the Sass Pordoi.
That wasn't a spelling mistake. Sass Pordoi is a mountain at 2,952 m (9,685 ft), whose summit can be reached by funicular from Pordoi Pass. These were large cable cars, not the small ones. They held a fair amount of people so once we had our tickets it didn't take long before we were heading skywards!
They set off climbing at quite a steep angle too. We were amongst the last people on, so had a good view looking downwards. I've never been particularly bothered by heights providing I'm not in the process of falling from them, but not everyone on the coach felt able to attempt the trip up the mountain.
It was a long way up even on the cable car. We felt our ears pop a couple of times as we ascended and the air got thinner.
At the top of the mountain there were a couple of gullies and the cable car made use of them, passing between walls of rock on three sides as it neared the top station.
As we reached the summit and got out to walk atop the plateau of the mountain top we could see that the cable car station actually overhung the edge.
Looking back down the way we came up we could see only a cluster of buildings without being able to make out much detail. The sun's rays lit up the tops of surrounding mountains and the path of the valleys far below.
Up here on the rock plateau it was decidedly chilly. Admittedly I was only wearing a t-shirt... My arm started to tingle with cold. When I looked, tiny ice crystals or snow flakes were landing on me. Time to go back down!
As we waited for the cable car it started to snow a bit harder and we crammed into the first available car shivering and clapping our arms around ourselves trying get warm again.
We were all on the coach again apart from a Chinese mother and daughter who had gone wandering around independently instead of going up the cable car. They turned up 20 minutes late and tried to blame it on Helena telling her that she had told them the wrong time - even though the rest of us had obviously gotten there on time. Helena was having none of it. "Don't argue with Mama!" she said in a voice that brought on a sudden storm complete with thunder and lightning...
Thursday 1 July 2003. After our stop in Bolzano we were back onto the coach and travelled a bit then we found ourselves heading up a mountain on a cable car.
We had arrived at a place called Renon, where we were about to catch a tramcar to - I don't know - somewhere near Renon... Once at this destination lunch would be provided and then there would be a short walk to see some "pyramids". We were a bit agog, thinking that if there were pyramids in the Dolomites, why had we never heard of them...
Anyway, one tram came and went then another came and Lucille, our guide, said we had this one to ourselves, much to the disgust of the Germans, who were waiting close to the tracks, ready to jump on!
Once we were all inside, the tram ran along the edge of some fairly spectacular precipices and Lucille told us that the pyramids were a natural phenomenon, and not man-made.
The tram stopped, we got off and were herded to a tavern where lots of other parties were in the process of being disappointed at the tiny miniscule portions offered to us by smiling staff. Put it this way; you could have, as a drink, either beer or wine. I chose a beer and almost anywhere else in the world would have been given more liquid if I had asked for a small wine... If you go on this trip, take a picnic.
From there we followed Lucille, who was striding purposefully way out in front whilst the rest of us followed in a straggly line, tummies rumbling with hunger and already feeling as though no pyramids could possibly make up for the disappointment of lunch. No wonder the staff were smiling - they must have been making a fortune out of us as the cost of the food would have been included in the cost of the excursion.
We were also starting to wonder how far we were going to walk... At one point we passed a small terraced cafe.
"Have you any spare drinks?" we were wailing plaintively as we passed...
The amount of resentment amongst the party must have been the reason Lucille had set off at such a pace so that she was in no danger of anyone having breath left to complain. We could have been about to witness the most incredible sight in the entire world and we would still not have appreciated it.
The pyramids were pillars of sandstone formed by some weathering process. "We have something similar in New Zealand" Kell said, "and it's the same thing. You see them, say 'Yup...' and walk away again!"
Thursday 1 July 2003. Another busy day ahead of us. We join the Leger coach today for a trip into the Dolomite mountains to visit Bolzano and then to view some... pyramids?
So it's an early breakfast and then a quick walk around the deserted streets of Riva before we get on the coach. We got the impression that the Italians would have been amazed and appalled at the though of being up so early in the morning. The only people we saw were refuse collectors. Some of Riva's streets and alleyways were so narrow that the bin carts were 3-wheeled Apis - "api" meaning "bee" and the vehicles being made by the same firm that made Vespa scooters, "vespa" meaning "wasp". We just called them Reliant bin trucks!
Onto the coach and climbing up from the lake. It was shaping up to be another very warm day.
The first stop was at Bolzano, with the impressive cathedral at the foot of the large piazza, lined with pavement cafes and with a large statue as centrepiece. That was some impressive roof decoration! Bolzano cathedral dates from 1184 and was built over the foundations of a 4th century CE Christian basilica. Also on the site was found a 3rd century CE cemetary with the Roman tombstone of Secundus Regontius - Bolzano's earliest identified inhabitant.
The statue is that of Walther von der Vogelweide, c.1170 – c.1230, a singer who apparently vogelled far and wide! He wrote both love songs and political songs and a hundred or so of his songs survive in text, but we have no idea how the tunes went. Consequently they are not sung much... However he was certainly influential, playing a part in persuading the Germans to take part in the Crusades and has statues of himself in several cities.
Anyway, we knew nothing about all that at the time of course and instead were quite happy enjoying the sunshine and walking up and down streets and markets without a thought of political love songs in our heads. I do wonder now how they went...
Having such narrow streets makes delivery of goods quite a challenge. Vans are parked tight to the walls of buildings and pedestrians have to keep an eye out for any other vehicles trying to squeeze past them.
In the museum here lies an old long-dead body. The body was discovered by hikers in 1991. He had been crossing a glacier and the ice had preserved his body almost perfectly. He died - in fact he was murdered - over 5,300 years ago. For ten years it was believed he had died a natural death but then an arrowhead was found buried in his shoulder, with a corresponding tear in his coat. It had shattered his scapula and it is thought even with modern medicines would have killed him due to blood loss. His knife had blood from other individuals on it and his hand was cut severely to the bone.
He is older than Stonehenge, older than the pyramids of Egypt, older even than Keith Richards. From his clothes and tools that were found with him, he was from the late Neolithic era, at the point where the Stone Age was starting to give way to the Bronze Age. Named Ötzi after his discovery, he had been carrying stone tools, but also a copper axe. His body is preserved in a specially refridgerated cell in the museum and can be viewed through a small window.
A group visit was arranged to see him, but it was a nice day and we were more than happy to take it easy and enjoy the city.
We made our way back to the cathedral square and sat at a cafe with a glass of coffee and the sketchpad before me on the table.
I think this was my first attempt at drawing people other than at extreme distance. There was far too much detail in that church roof to do it justice!
My record of a week's holiday at Lake Garda in northern Italy, staying at the Hotel Sole in Riva del Garda at the top of the lake.
Each place of interest is shown on its own separate article, reached by clicking/tapping the eleven photos below. A link on each page will bring you back here.
