We arrived in Trento fully expecting to be rained out for 3-4 days, but today surprises us yet again. It’s partly sunny, and the threatened arrival of rain keeps pushing out hour by hour and doesn’t finally arrive until mid-evening. It’s nice enough that we really could hop on the bikes for a ride along the Adige, but a walk sounds better to both of us. I map out a hike up into the hills east of town, and we set out together.
We don’t get far together though. As soon as we enter the Piazza Duomo just two blocks from our apartment I look around and decide I want to take my time and look around the city a bit at my own pace. It’s good for both of us - Rachael goes ahead with the hike we had mapped out, and before long she’s phoning me to be sure to make it up into the hills myself because the views are phenomenal. When we finally hook up at the apartment later in the afternoon she’ll tell me about what a great hike she had: 8 miles, 2,200’ of climbing, and a conversation with some Italian guy up in the hills that she goes on and on about for long enough that I’m starting to feel jealous.
And she brings back some photos, in case I never make it up myself. None of the Italian guy though, which is interesting.
The hills start immediately east of downtown, and climb steeply. There are beautiful streets and walkways to choose from but there are footpaths radiating everywhere. Trento looks like a great base for an extended stay if you’re a hiker. Or biker. Or cross country skier.
Another view across the Adige. I’m surprised to see that the Adige is the second longest river in Italy: 400 kilometers long, rising in the Tyrol near the Austrian border and emptying into the Adriatic just north of the Po Delta.the two rivers parallel each other for their last hundred miles to the sea but never quite connect.
unlike many days like this when I’m left to my own devices and nobody’s watching to crack the whip, I end up with a pretty decent hike myself: six and a half miles, a thousand feet of climbing. After staring around the Duomo plaza for awhile I head to the over to walk along it for a ways, and then head up the hill myself - following the marked trail at first, but then improvising a different route and eventually making my way back to town down the same route we coasted when we arrived yesterday.
Just some pics, to prove I actually went somewhere.
In the Piazza Venezia, a monument to Alcide De Gasperi. I’ve never heard of this man, but he’s an important figure in post-war Europe. As prime minister and foreign minister of the Italian Kingdom. He is regarded as one of the founders of democratic Italy and the European Union, he is buried in Borgo Valsugana, a fact I wish we’d known at the time.
Details of the De Gasperi monument. Below his statue are the figures of Faith and Reflection (on the opposite face, not shown) and Justice and Politics. The relief on the left of the monument is the Destruction, representing the ruin of Italy durning the war; and on the right, the Reconstuction.
