Northern Italy...The Country Side

Photo of upcoming tour to Cinque Terre

Just a few days in country and our exploring adventures have started. Today, our first morning stops was to the ITT office at the Base Exchange. Here, we looked at several options to book trips all over Europe. Our foursome finally selected two adventure tours. One will be to Croatia by boat and the other will be Cinque Terre with a preview photo to the right.

It was raining and I didn't get a photo outside. Claire,
the snow above is not present now!

Once we got all of our paper work and planning behind us, we headed over to the Italian Military Mess Hall (Menza) for lunch. Reasonably priced and for cafeteria food excellent! Joan & Sam said they would take us up towards the Dolomite mountains to visit this ancient dome church which is visible for miles away. Therive was as expected filled with switch back roads, which were narrow, but located in a forested area and not on the edge of threatening precipice cliffs. I must mention that the weather in the valley was partly cloudy, but here at higher elevation, it looked like a shower was eminent and it was raining as we opened the car doors. When in Italy, be prepared and we were with umbrellas. The church built in 1339 is still in use and in good condition. We could hear the rain hitting the roof and spent a little more time in the church studying all of its intricacies. The rain let up and we took a mountain traiOnce we got all of our paper work and planning behind us,

Helen and Sam looking at the mouth of the spring!

we headed over to the Italian Military Mess Hall (Menza) for lunch. Reasonably priced and for cafeteria food excellent! Joan & Sam said they would take us up towards the Dolomite mountains to visit this ancient dome church which is visible for miles away. The drive was as expected filled with switch back roads, which were narrow, but located in a forested area and not on the edge of threatening precipice cliffs. I must mention that the weather in the valley was partly cloudy, but here at higher elevation, it looked like a shower was eminent and it was raining as we opened the car doors. When l back down to another lower parking lot where Sam was waiting with the car. The decending trail had mosaic grottos of Catholic depictions. Joan, Helen and I started down the path and no sooner the rain started agai
n. Thank God for the umbrellas! A little rain didn’t bother us, but I wasn’t able to take as many photos as I wanted to. You know holding an umbrella in one hand and the other hand with the camera was a difficult task!

Siberian Husky cooling of in the river

Yummy Gelato on a very hot day!

Enchanting village scene

Amazingly, as soon as we got back on a lower elevation the rain was gone and sun appeared. The humidity was very high with the temperature in the mid eighties. The next stop was what Sam called a spring coming out of the mountain. This was an understatement! It was a large flowing river. Ice cold water rushing from the Dolomite rock cliff, crystal clear, 30 feet wide and 3 to 10 feet deep! With the high warm air temperature and ice cold water, steam was instantly created. I haven’t checked my photos yet, but I’m hoping to have some interesting shots of this neat little area of Gorgazzo & Polcenigo. As we walked toward the car, the river was calling us toward the village with it’s interesting houses nestled along the bank. A lady had walked her Siberian Husky down the stone stairs to the river for a cool drink. She came back up and we couldn’t resist petting her well groomed dog! Even though we don’t speak Italian, we seem to be communicating very well with the local population. It was getting very hot now and we about faced, heading to the parking lot. The Peugeot A/C certainly came in handy. Speaking of the car, it was a diesel with 188,540 kilometers on it. I believe that equals to 117,153 or so miles. That certainly sounds like a lot, but the car was fairly new and it averaged 30 to 45 miles per gallon. The torque also was more
than adequate for the mountains.

Stepheno remembered Sam and Joan even after five years

From “La Sogente del Gorgazzo” spring or river, a Gelato was in order in the next town of Polcengio. La Gelateria was just opening at 2:30 in the afternoon. Remember, most all businesses shut down from 1pm to 2:30pm. We were the second customers and each had a Gelato cone! The first customer ordered a dozens different scopes which were placed in a styrofoam box, much like buying a dozen donuts. This was sold by the pound. Our cone was just $1.20 (Euro)… Not a bad price at all! It was now very, very hot! Sam drove us to a hilltop in the village where we explored the ruins of an abandoned castle . If walls could talk, we certainly would have heard an ear full!
It was late in the afternoon before we got back to the Air Force Inn for a rest. Later, our dinner was San Giorgio. Sam & Joan knew Stepheno, the head waiter, who welcomed us and made us feel right at home. Dinning at its best. Even though I only had pasta again, it was served to perfection! I also tried a house vino, which I enjoyed. At the end of the meal, Stepheno brought us an after dinner drink of some lemon flavored liquor. Between the vino and the shot, I’m glad Sam was driving back to the base.


That is what we did and saw!