Trento, Italy

After leaving Reschen, I decided that it was silly to keep catching a bus or train to the next place and hope I could get a physio appointment for my feet. With that in mind I made the decision to forget the path for a while and head straight for Trento in the hope that I could get several appointments with the same physio.

At first I thought I had made a big mistake, as the woman in the tourist office was singularly unhelpful, as was the reception desk at the hostel I had booked into, however I revised my opinion of the latter when, with persuasion, they managed to get me an appointment in a couple of days.  I was very lucky because the physio manages to fit me in on the Thursday AND the Friday, and I have just returned from the last appointment (Monday night).  I am delighted as I am now walking without a limp and I think I can now hit the road again, though I will refrain tomorrow as I have been unable to find a single sign to leave town, and so will catch the train for a wee way and then start - it will be a lot easier to find the path in a small village than in a big town like Trento.

It was truly beautiful coming off the mountains.  The snow on the peaks was a treat and the views were spectacular.  The bus followed a road that zig zagged its way down off the plateau, and then it was a train trip the rest of the way, with the train tracks following the contour of the valley, mostly following a very fast river.  I had to go into Bolzano, the capital of the South Tyrol, before changing trains to Trento.  The lower the altitude got the more I saw waterfalls tumbling off the mountainsides, some of them quite spectacular.  And still the cyclists roared along in their large and small groups.

A man on the train was telling me that Trento and the South Tyrol compete (and I got the impression they don't like each other).  So here I am in Trento, and here some of my visual impressions of the city.

Trento is on the the Flume Aldige.  The white cliffs of the Dolomites can be seen here and were spectacular on the train trip from Bolzano to Trento.  The Dolomites are actually made of coral and algae, forced up millions of years ago.

 A streetscape in Trento(above and below).

I had breakfast in bars just like this.

There are flowers everywhere, though not always flowers but grasses and herbs as in the "book" below.

A building in the main square of Trento.

The Duomo (the Cathedral) in the square.  Every afternoon fluffy white clouds appear, which then darken and threaten rain, but mostly I think it falls in the mountains.  The locals all walk out with their umbrellas though.

                     

There are many buildings which have part of the roof covered in these shiny green and coloured tiles, some forming patterns.  For me this is reminiscent of the roofs in the Burgundy region in France.