Trip to Trentino

Trip to Trentino

My next trip came about by a fortuitous meeting while waiting in the rain for a taxi in Verona. One day after the fair I was with two importers and we were trying to catch a taxi back to our hotel.  It was bucketing down and the queue was rather long. We started talking to a young girl in the queue ahead of us. She was from California and worked for a woman who had a PR company in Rome. The woman had an idea of doing press trips around Italy and would I be interested. Of course I had to say yes, wouldn’t you? Since then I have been to Italy many times on one of Marina’s trips or under my own steam and we have become firm friends. These days, more often than not, I go for other reasons but no matter when I go to Italy I always try to fit in a visit to Rome to visit Marina.

The mountains rise up above vineyards

I arrived at Milan airport ready to travel up to Trentino Alto Adige, a region known for its beauty and rugged landscape. I was so excited. I met the others in my group, journalists from all over the world: a couple of guys from the USA, a German who had lived in Canada for many years, a Frenchman, an Englishman, a Dutchman.  Each of them with a different personality and this was the time when I learnt that not all personalities travel well together.

I spent all of my teen years growing up in Australia and the chance to see real mountains were few and far between. A trip to the Snowy Mountains doesn’t compete with the magnificence of the Dolomites. Towering above the road with the added charm of old stone churches built hundreds of feet up just doesn’t compare. Australia has many beautiful sights but the mountains now look like big hills when put next to these big boys.

A house amongst the vineyards

On the way from Milan to Bolzano we found out about the region from our driver, a young Italian guy who lived in Bolzano and who was extremely open. He told us that in the area in which he lived (Bolzano) they spoke three languages: Italian, German and Ladin – a local language. This was because the Austrians felt more of an alliance with Austria and wanted the Sud-Tirol ( the name of the area as far as the Austrians were concerned) to become part of Austria again - after all it only became part of Italy in 1919.

The Italians were very relaxed about it because it was part of Italy and they felt it was their natural right to be there. So the Sud -Tyroleans speak German and the people of Trentino speak Italian with some cross over. In a number of provinces on both sides Ladin is the official language.

You really notice this problem because everywhere you go, the street signs are in both languages and most companies have two names, it is very confusing.

Castle Toblino on Lago di Garda

It took us about five hours on the bus to get to our destination but getting there was half the fun. The mountains appeared to be so tall (about 3000+ metres) and for part of the trip we drove through a valley carved out by a prehistoric glacier, the road was so flat but the area was only a few hundred metres wide. The landscape remained the same until we reached the upper end of the Adige river and we found ourselves in Alto Adige (High Adige). The it softened, we left the mountains behind and we passed through Bolzano. Fortunately I have since learnt that Bolzano is a beautiful city, back then we were only driven through the industrial sector.

We finally got to our destination, the Hotel Rungghof. It was a lovely hotel, a large building built in the fashion of houses in the area but larger. It was built near the top of the hill and the views were spectacular – on a clear day. When I learnt we were going to the alps I went prepared, turtle necks and thick jumpers, trousers and boots.  It was 33 degrees celcius and they had a swimming pool – which everybody was able to take advantage of except me! I learnt to research all my trips after that.

The beginning of the private road leading to Hotel Rungghop

We were invited by the wife of the owner to come and have a snack after we had checked in. She said we must be tired and hungry and she would put out a buffet for us. We all went up to our rooms and freshened up and then came down to the buffet – after all we had missed lunch and wouldn’t be eating until 9pm.

I came downstairs and our German companion came down before me. There was a spread of cold meats, cheese, bread, all sort of accompaniments, it looked delightful. However, Alex the German, who had sussed out one of our companion’s, Aaron, a guy from the USA was Jewish, got very upset. He demanded that they take away all the salami because Aaron couldn’t eat it. He thought he was doing the right thing but Aaron didn’t see it that way. He had just entered the room when Alex was making the request.  Aaron got very hot under the collar and told them to leave it, he would eat it. Alex then said he couldn’t eat it because he was Jewish and it kicked off. It seemed that WW3 had started!