It was very hot, so my feet and ankles have swollen quite badly, and my back has been painful, making things very difficult. I took lots of photos on the iPhone, but they don’t seem to be arriving on the iPad so I’m not sure how much I can post here, as the best ones are missing. If all else fails, I’ll need to email them to myself, but that seems ridiculous. It’s never happened before so I might need to resort to using the camera again, which would be a shame as the iPhone takes much better photos.
It took about an hour to drive to the funicular, and I was on the sunny side of the bus so I took no photos as it would have been directly into the sun. We travelled through vineyards and apple orchards in the valley floor at first, surrounded by the steep rocky summits on all sides. Then we climbed up into the little village of St Anton for the funicular up to the Mendola Pass.
I should perhaps explain that this part of Italy was originally part of the Austro-Hungarian empire until after the First World War so German is the first language, rather than Italian. It’s known as the South Tyrol. We soon got used to seeing all the signs in both languages but German is first as a slightly larger proportion of the population is German speaking.
There was quite a queue for the funicular, it was very crowded and busy, as it’s very popular. It was first built in 1903 though of course it has been refurbished many times.it’s nearly 2 and a half kilometres long, and very steep - 64 degrees at the steepest point. Unfortunately there were so many people in the early morning that we were packed in like sardines so there was no possibility of taking photos.
The view from the top was very good, though it didn’t photograph well.
We wandered for a little looking at the alpine style buildings, the best of which I think is the Villa Camille, built in 1886 by a very wealthy Jewish banker in memory of his wife. It is now a shop.
I did go into the shop, which had some interesting metalwork as well as some small antiques, but there was nothing I really wanted. So we went back to the terrace overlooking the view and sat and drank mineral water and admired the view.
It was less crowded on the way down so I took some photos but they aren’t very good.
It was only a few minutes drive to the village of Caldaro, which is a popular tourist destination. This is part of the main square.
As it wasn’t yet lunch time, we went to have a look inside the church, which is one side of the main square, next to the town hall. We did not like the interior.
From what I could gather from a brief perusal of the Italian guide book, the interior decorations mostly dated from the 1700s, with some later additions in the early 1800s. I would have described it as a baroque horror - but then I really don’t like the baroque.
We wandered the town a little, as it was really very pretty. This was one of the streets
For lunch we made our way back to the main square where we found a restaurant for a light lunch. The rain descended in torrents just as we were about to leave, so we sheltered under the café umbrellas for a while as I unpacked the raincoat and umbrella. The shower was heavy but fortunately it didn’t last too long and we got back in the bus for our visit to the Rotari winery, to learn about the making of sparkling wine.
My back was so bad by the time we got there that I’m amazed I took anything in from the tour we had. Moreover, I don’t think I’ve ever gone up and down so many stairs in such a short time in my life. And very few of them had bannisters. You obviously need to be young and fit to work there! Interestingly enough, it’s a wine Co-operative, which accounts for its enormous size.
The grapes are picked by hand, pressed, and have a first fermentation in huge steel tanks. The tanks were so tall, it was impossible to photograph their full height, and there were hundreds of them.
In spring, sugar and yeast is added and the wine is bottled with crown caps and stored horizontal for the second fermentation. Then the bottles are turned daily and finally stored upside down so the sedimentation gathers in the neck of the bottle. Once the sediment has gathered, the upside down bottles go into a cooling solution so the sediment is frozen. The bottles are turned the right way up and the crown cap removed, and the pressure from the wine ejects the frozen sediment.
We were then taken to taste the wine, a process rather wasted on me as I’m not a wine drinker - or indeed, a drinker of any alcohol. We were also given a red wine to taste, which Paul liked.
On the way back to the hotel for dinner, I couldn’t resist taking more photos of the amazing landscape.
Now it’s time for bed as we must be up at 7 tomorrow for a visit to Trentino and Levico. Heaven knows how my back is going to survive it.
No comments:
Post a Comment