A Few Other Places We've Been
Trento
Nosellari is about a 35 minute drive up a curvy mountain road from
Trento. We drove through Trento when we first came to
Nosellari from Munich at the start of our vacation. We were busy
trying to find the road to Nosellari and we didn't pay much
attention to the town.
The next time we came to Trento was our "emergency" run to
bring Sueann with her broken wrist to the Trento hospital emergency
ward from
Nosellari (thank heaven the way to the hospital was very well marked).
The day after our "emergency" run we were back at the
hospital to try to get some relief for the pain Sueann was having.
Nine days later Sueann had a checkup appointment at the
hospital. Sueann's wrist was doing very well and we decided that this would be a good time to
explore Trento a bit.
We mostly walked around the Piazza Duomo and the streets surrounding
it. I took the photo below with the workman purposely to remind
myself to comment on the volume of repairs going on everywhere.
It's off-season for tourists and I think Italy takes advantage of
this good weather period with somewhat fewer tourists to fix itself up.
Repairs are in progress everywhere - roads, churches, other
buildings, bridges, tunnels and piazzas. They are all being repaired.
Sometimes one wishes that they could see a church or a building
without their protective coverings. Here, the workmen were
simply replacing a few cobblestones in the piazza.
I did not find the inside of the Duomo to be particularly
spectacular. However the gray tone rose window was much to my
liking.
The Piazza Duomo is lined with cafes and buildings with lovely frescoes.
In the center of the Piazza is a fine fountain topped by a statue of
Neptune. Notice the mountains in the background of the
photo below. Trento lies in the Adige valley and like many towns
in northern Italy is largely surrounded by mountains.
Trento has a large castle. We parked nearby and bought a
parking slip good for three hours. We had a quick lunch
which left us
about two and one quarter hours to see the castle. We entered
the
castle but we could not make heads or tails of the castle map we were
given. So we wandered about mostly through what I believe is the
new part of the castle, never getting to see the old castle which is
what you see in the photo below.
The parts of the castle we did see were gratifying because of their
artistic content. Here is a photo of the ceiling of one of the
meeting rooms.
We passed by the painting below of the Council of Trent. The
Council met in 25 sessions between 1545 and 1563. All but three
of the sessions took place in Trento. "The
Council of Trent played an important part in determining the outcome of
the Counter Reformation. Along with the part played by the
Jesuits and certain individuals, the Council of Trent was a central
feature of the Counter-Reformation. But whether Trent represented a
positive move by the Catholic Church remains contentious." (taken from http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/council-of-trent.htm)
Walking around the streets of Trento was very pleasant. The old
part of town is interesting and lovely. Notice the young man on
the bicycle wearing the yellow jacket. His bike is small and he
seemed very interested in a nice larger bike parked nearby. Sueann was sure that the larger bike would soon be gone.
Here is one of Trento's many palazzi that once were the homes and
retreats of such wealthy European families as the Thuns and the
Fuggers.
Arco
We had been told that Arco which lies to the north of the Lago di Garda
was a very pleasant destination. One Sunday we drove on a
beautiful road that runs between Trento and the north end of the lake
heading for Arco. On the way we stopped at a small lake near the
tiny village of Santa Massenza. We just wanted to stretch
our legs and the lake was pretty. We walked down a path that
brought us to the blue turbine wheel you can see in the photo
below. The wires and the wheel made us wonder if there was
a generating plant nearby. We didn't see one and we didn't hear
the generating kind of noise we are familiar with from our cabin near
Powerhouse One of the Southern California Edison's Sierra
generating facility.
We found out that the generating facility was constructed shortly after
WWII entirely in the rock mountain and at that time was one of the
largest "all in rock" generating facilities in the world. The
generators are fed from water that falls from the other side of the
mountain through solid rock channels.
Nearby Santa Massenza we spotted the "castle" below which is now a hotel and restaurant.
Arco is indeed a very pleasant destination. That Sunday it
was filled with families and young people enjoying the long
pedestrian-only street that winds through the town. Many were
eating gelato from one of several gelaterias. Arco has a
reputation for fine gelato. Above the town is a castle that sits
precariously on a sharp peak.
We imagined that the climate in Arco must be mild because of the presence of palm trees and cactus.
Vicenza
We had planned to spend last Tuesday and Wednesday in Venice.
Venice is only about a two hour drive from Nosellari.
Vicenza is pretty much directly on the route to Venice so we
spent Monday there. One thing about Monday in Italy: pretty much
every museum and building you might want to see is chiuso,
closed. But Monday in Vicenza is not too bad because many of
the town's most prominent features are buildings. Vicenza is
famous as the town that fostered and then adopted Andrea Palladio (1508
- 1580) as the town's architect. Vicenza has signs all over town
pointing to Pallidio's buildings. It was a lot of fun going from
sign to sign and then to the designated Palladio buildings. Who
needs Museums when you have architecture.
Andrea Palladio (1508 - 1580)
Here are a few of Pallladio's buildings that we saw.
I guess you can see that Palladio was big on columns. For more on
Palladio see http://www.boglewood.com/palladio/life.html
As we were walking around Vicenza we spotted a man in a tiny garage
with two red motorcyles. We couldn't resist asking about them.
Thereupon commenced a conversation between Walter, who only spoke
Italian, and us who speak very little Italian. We learned that
Walter is 76 and still rides the red Motoguzzi bike which is 57 years
old. Walter has had it for 25 years. Recently Walter's
friend from California borrowed the bike and rode all around Italy as
Walter has done in the past.
Best wishes to you,
Sueann and Jeff
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