Italy: Delta on Demand

Delta on Demand is great. I watched four movies on my way back across the Atlantic:
17 Again -- Very funny. What's-his-face from High School Musical is actually a pretty good actor.
Adventureland -- Hilarious. Also, filmed in Pittsburgh.
Terminator Salvation -- Well, a lot of things blew up and looked very cool. Using jumper cables as a defibrillator? Heart transplant in a field hospital? Questionable.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine -- I actually really liked this. The only thing that really annoyed me was, close the beginning, when Wolverine uses his new claws to cut through a door, parts of the door (in the center of the "X" that he cuts) hang in the middle of the door with no support.

On the way over, I watched Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. It wasn't too bad, definitely better than some other female-oriented romantic comedies that I've seen.

Bolzano: Alpe di Siusi (cont)

Views from the outcrop. My starting point is the small building in the top-center of the second picture.




Some flowers that I saw on the way down.


Some things I saw on the second leg of the hike.









This is apparently considered prime grazing land.


My first self portrait so far in Italy.


Mountain peak lit by the setting sun, as I sat and waited for the bus.

Bolzano: Alpe di Siusi

This was, by far, the most brutal hike I've ever done. The first segment was only about a mile, but it took well over an hour. It was something like 1200 feet of rise. I think that I spent more time resting than I did actually hiking. The second segment was about 6 miles, relatively strenuous, which I did in a little over 2 1/2 hours.

A stream that runs under the bus stop.


The view up the main lift to Alpe di Siusi (11 euro).


After I got up the main lift, I had a bratwurst and water (4.80 euro), caught a bus (2 euro) then took a chair lift (7.50 euro) up the side of the valley. Here is a view from the chair lift.


It apparently gets so cold there that they need canopies on their chair lifts. It was certainly cold while I was there, even in early September. I'm pretty cold tolerant, and I still had to buy a fleece (40 euro) when I got off the lift. I'd guess that ambient air temperature was something like 55 degrees. It was comfortable in the sun, but as soon as you stepped into the shade or the wind started blowing (and the wind was pretty much always blowing) it got very cold.


This was the first leg of my hike, up to that outcrop on the left. There is a road/path that winds around the hill and up the backside, but I just went straight up the hill/ridge that is on the right. It was tough going, sometimes on all fours, but I didn't come all the way to Italy to walk around on a road, dammit. The second picture shows the road/path, which I did use to walk back down. It was pretty treacherous, very steep and lots of loose gravel. I saw one guy lose his footing and do a very painful looking back plant.



I saw this guy on the way up the hill.


This was the path up the backside.


Once you get up to the outcrop, this is the path the rest of the way up the mountain. If you zoom in, you can see the people (indicated with the pin). I really wanted to hike up "until I ran out of green" but it just wasn't going to happen.


People use stones to write their names or make pictures on the small flat meadow on the outcrop. I just brought a few stones home with me.

Bolzano: Castle Juval (cont)

The main staircase.


The dining room.


The mask room. I took this mostly because of the ceiling.


Some views from the second floor courtyard.





The medieval bathroom (also on the second floor courtyard).


The tower (and those that were cool enough to climb it).



And the exit.

Bolzano: Castle Juval

Our Italian friends were kind enough to plan a social dinner for Friday night, including a private tour of the Castle Juval (owned by the world famous mountain climber Reinhold Messner).

These were from the trip to the castle.



The valley below the castle.


The main entrance to the castle. You can also see here the rears of Kurt and Julia.


The main courtyard.




In the basement were small blocks screwed to the ceiling beams. We assumed that these were for training. The smallest was only about 1/4" thick. There was another that was slightly thicker, but perfectly circular.



In the "Tibet" room, the floor is made out of many small blocks of wood, with end-grain exposed.