Rain was predicted for Sunday, so we started the day with a trip to a cheese factory in the Val di Non. The point is not to tour the factory, but to shop the selection of local specialties. Each factory makes a few of its own cheeses, and they trade with others so each shop can sell a variety. Apologies for the lack of photos; I was busy tasting, oohing, and aahing.
The drive to the cheese factory took us through the center of Italy's apple-growing region. Here, unlike other areas near the alps, the land is wide plateau rather than a narrow valley, but the elevations are a bit too high for good grapes. I noticed that unlike most of the orchards I see in America where trees spread, here many are trained vertically. The trees are planted in rows the right distance apart to run a tractor between them for easy picking. Furthermore, many of the orchards are covered by nets to protect the fruit from hailstorms which are fairly common in this mountain region.
Cheese in hand, we then drove to one of the canyons that dissect the plateau. Andrea told me that the steep-sided canyons are a rather recent development, geologically speaking, dating from the time when glaciation filled the area with debris.
 |
| Looking across Val di Non. The grayish areas are apple orchards covered with netting. |
 |
| Santuario di San Romedio |
Before we began the day's hike, we climbed many river stone steps to the Santuario di San Romedio, a small monastery situated along the walls of one of the canyons. The monastery began as a single chapel in the middle ages and was gradually added onto as the years went by. While monks no longer live on site—it's just too difficult to reach in the winter months—the church still holds mass regularly.
v |
| View of the courtyard looking down from the top of the steps in the previous picture. |
 |
| The sanctuary |
 |
| Looking out at the canyon from a very old window |
 |
| Silvia and Andrea were married in this room of the monastery so I took an anniversary photo. It was something like their 23-1/3 year anniversary. |
 |
| This small room was the first part of the church built. The thing that looks like a step in the center bottom of the photo is some of the rock that the church was built upon, forming part of the floor. |
 |
| This is what you see from a little covered terrace at the very top of the monastery. Now pay attention to the little fence in the upper right edge of the photo. |
 |
| Here's the view toward the mouth of the canyon from that little fenced area outside the terrace. |
 |
| Inside the church, there are stories to tell. These crutches and walking sticks suspended from the ceiling were left by people who prayed for recovery here and no longer needed them. |
|
Similarly, the walls of the inside staircase are lined with photos and stories of accidents survived, illnesses vanquished, and children conceived after prayers were answered here.
 | After leaving the monastery, we walked a path that follows the route of an ancient aqueduct along the canyon wall. Look closely to see the road at the bottom of the canyon.
|
|
 |
| At the mouth of the canyon the landscape opens up to more netted apple orchards. |
 |
Despite the sign warning of video surveillance, apparently hungry hikers could not resist poking holes in the netting to grab an apple.
|
 |
| Next we headed to Lago Smerelda, which feeds into another tiny canyon leading into the town of Fondo. |
 |
| The town of Fondo is built around the stream that runs through the canyon, which powered a mill. Old houses sit precariously on the edge of the cliff. |
 |
| Fondo is built on many levels, with the stream as its focal point. |
 |
| Andrea tells me that on Epiphany, people go around town and write the initials of the three kings on doorways in chalk as a form of blessing. These letters, representing Kaspar, Melchior, and Balthazar, are left from January 2022. |
 |
| Museo Retico |
Following our visit to Fondo, we stopped at Museo Retico, a small archeological/cultural museum that Silvia and Andrea had tried several times to visit. Somehow it had always been closed. It's a sleek new building with beautifully designed exhibits of objects dating back to neolithic times. The lessons here were eye opening for me; I just hadn't thought much about the regions very early residents.
We had to laugh about the museum hours, though. They are open only on Saturday and Sunday between 2:00 and 6:00 pm. And they are closed November-May. No wonder Silvia and Andrea never found it open!
 |
| We finished the day by driving over Passo della Mendola into Sud Tirol. Here's the view of Bolzano from the top. |
 |
| Looking down into the Adige Valley |
|
 |
| A small section of the road down to Bolzano. There were 18 switchbacks on the stretch we drove. I want to drive it someday! (Not my photo by the way.) |
The Adige valley is close to the Austrian border and has a distinctively Germanic feel. As we drove south toward Trento, we passed through the town of Termino/Tramin, which Andrea informed me is the place where Gewürtztraminer wine is produced. Duh! I'm learning so much on this trip. Then we passed through the town of Mezzocorona which prompted me to ask if the wine brand I'm familiar with, Mezza Corona, is from there. He said it was, but Italian law doesn't permit a private label to name their wine with the exact name of the town. Notice the slight variation in spelling. Andrea said the area is also known by its German name, Kronmetz (which, like the Italian, means "half crown.")
It had been a long day, with another 5 miles of hiking. We got home just in time to shower and head to the upstairs neighbor's for a delicious dinner of wild asparagus, polenta with wild mushrooms, some of the cheeses we bought earlier in the day, and homemade strudel.
Comments