Rome has the Pope

Bolzano in the Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol has everything else.

Soprabolzano (Oberbozen) a 20 minute Funicular ride to the Dolomites... 

and the Geyerhof where we have spent many a holiday cross-country skiing and hiking the trails in the summertime.  We were greeted like old Friends and served a fantastic Lunch (Christoph is still one of the finest chefs in all of Europe and I have told him so many times).

 

Bolzano (Bozen) also has a sensational everyday market.

I can never decide which grapes are my favorite.  Is it the Muskatel or is it the Regina grape?

 Nothing is missing at the Bolzano market

Not even my favorite Bouquet, the Tussie Mussie.

(I will have to show you how to make these with Lace paper doilies). 

Bolzano also has Ötzi, the Iceman

Books and films about the Iceman

Angelika Fleckinger

Ötzi, the Iceman

The Full Facts at a Glance
2003 120 pages, photos, 11,5 x 20 cm , € 10,00, ISBN 3-85256-244-9

Old and exhausted, with an arrowhead lodged in his shoulder – this is how the Iceman met his death 5,300 years ago.
Since the discovery of the glacier mummy, a window has been opened on this unexplored, often misunderstood period of history: Ötzi expert Angelika Fleckinger summarises what experts from a variety of disciplines have painstakingly unearthed about Ötzi’s life and death in research lasting many years. Superbly detailed close-ups and impressive general views, including colour pictures of the Iceman’s equipment and clothing, bring to life one of the most sensational archaeological finds to date. Everything you wanted to know about the Iceman, in authoritative, compact and vivid descriptions.

 

The DiscoveryThursday, September 19, 1991 – 1.30 p.m.Tisenjoch - 3210 m above sea level
Ötztal Alps (South Tyrol, Italy)
On a sunny day two hikers, Erika and Helmut Simon, from Nuremberg in Germany, were walking in the Ötztal Alps. Descending from the Finail peak in the Tisenjoch area, the Simons decided to take a shortcut and left the marked footpath. As they walked past a rocky gully filled with meltwater, they noticed something brown on the gully bed. At first they thought it must be some sort of rubbish, but on closer inspection they realized with horror that they had discovered a human corpse.

http://www.iceman.it/en/oetzi-the-iceman

People live to a ripe old age in Bolzano, working hard every day.

 Never again will I complain about how hard I have to work in my garden. This elderly Ladies' garden is so steep she had to use a stick to balance herself. Early, every morning, she worked in her garden and gathered vegetables for her family. 

 The wine harvest was in full swing at the Hotel Hanny

http://www.hotelhanny.it/

Espaliered Apple and Pear trees line the lower valleys. 

Bolzano has everything

Why not  see for yourself.

Gina

Ad hoc

Karen, one of my students, paints every day.

Karen owns a little book into which she paints every day...with watercolors.

When Karen came for a visit in late Summer, I sent her home with vegetables from our garden.

    

On her next visit Karen brought a charming little book filled with her beautiful watercolors.  She had painted the vegetables from my garden.

Why not paint these pretty images onto ceramics, I suggested.

Karen also brought her 76-year-old Mother.  Her Mother had never painted ceramics.

See the lovely fruit plates her Mother painted.

Don't you love practical and useful items which are also beautiful.

Gina

Have you been to Kientzheim?

What about Ora, Italy?

 Kientzheim, where the streets are lined with half-timbered houses and Storks build their nests on top of chimneys.

When traveling by car in Europe, you sometimes end up in the most unexpected places.  Kientzheim, south of Strasbourg, in the Haut-Rhin region of the Alsace, is such a place.

Something happened with our rental car. 

It  needed to be hoisted onto a flatbed and taken in for repairs. 

The Hostellerie Schwendi, in Kientzmeim, was recommended for an overnight stay.  It turned out to be a fine Hotel with an award winning Restaurant. 
http://schwendi.pagesperso-orange.fr/


This was not the only incident with our rental car.  (I'll save that for another time)

Now on to Ora, Italy

Ora (Italian)  Auer (German)

See those stripes on the wooden shutters.  I used to know their meaning.  I think that red and white striped shutters designate a Hotel.  Green and white or blue and white  stripes mean something else.  Very convenient when you're out in the country side. Maybe my readers know the real scoop.

Ora, Italy with an incredible restaurant with an impossible name,

Tschurtsch.

Ora is a tiny village in the northern Italian region of the Trento Adige, not far from Bolzano.  Often, we travel to Europe in September and October.  We rent a car and set out with no particular plans except we usually make a round trip from Paris to Umbria, Italy,  and back to Paris. 

That is how we found Ora.  Our  modus operandi is always to start looking for a place by about 3 or 4 in the afternoon.  We head for a very small village and locate the village church tower.  That is where you find the best lodgings.  Lodgings which have provided a good meal and bed for many travelers through the centuries.

Strolling through Ora we came upon this intriguing looking Restaurant. 

Would you have gone inside?

If you had, you would have been served one of the finest meals in all of Europe.  

http://www.tschurtsch.it/de/essen.htm

Have a look at their very unusual Menu.

Have a great week my dear Blogging Friends!

Gina

Addendum Please note: Ownership of Tschurtsch Restaurant has changed.  For now, I can not recommend it. January 5, 2014. 
1/4/2018 Not recommended.

 

There is a place

Tucked away in the most northeastern corner of Italy

A special place called Südtirol

Where the cows go to green pastures and come home every evening to be in their cozy barn, where each cow has a hand painted name plate and her own window to look out from.

This is also the place where I buy my hand knit sweaters.
(The black sweater on the left is my newest acquisition).

From a special shop by the name of Trachten Stueberle

Where every balcony is  adorned with the most impossible and

luxurious flowers.

And where an elderly gentleman, of nobility, lives behind these towering walls.

He lives there, by himself, hidden.

In this enormous castle.

And every year I ask the locals: 'what do you hear from the old Gentleman' ? 

And always, a shrug of the shoulders follows.

And every year, I am hoping, that the elderly Gentleman will see me from his window, and send his manservant to invite me to have tea with him. 

And then I will sit quietly and listen.

Where is this magic place, you ask?

It is called Toblach/Dobbiaco in the Südtirol, where both Italian and German is spoken.

Each year I discover a little more and one day I will know everything.

Gina  

While I was frolicking in the French, Austrian, German and Italian countryside

My work was being exhibited at

the

The Springville Museum of Art

The Museum is known for its fine collection of Utah Art spanning from the Pioneer Days to the present. It also houses the largest public collection of 20th-century Russian Impressionist and Realist art in the western United States.

Springville.org 

Located 60 miles south of Salt Lake City,  the building was designed in the Spanish Colonial Revival Style, dedicated in 1903.

  The Exhibit ends Friday, the 14th day of October, 2011

It was an honor to be featured.

Have a great weekend, my dear blogging friends.

Gina

Holy Toledo

What a Cathedral!

Only this is in Reims, France,

not in Toledo Spain.

Do you see the people in the left bottom corner?  That will give you an idea of its enormous size.

Reims is just a 2 hour drive east of Paris,
in the famous Champagne Region of France.

Have you ever wondered how they work on those tall Cathedral Spires?

As you enter Reims, you are welcomed by an Ancient Triumphal Arch, The Porte de Mars, 115 feet long and 43 feet tall.

A few kilometers South and West of Reims, in
Épernay, you will find the famous champagne house of
Moët & Chandon. 

While visiting there, you might also want to purchase a few bottles of  Perrier-Jouët.

Many stately buildings line the streets of Épernay.

Yes, please, I'll take all of them!




The night before our departure we like to stay near but not at one of the airport hotels. 

Only 30 minutes from CDG airport we discovered the beautiful and medieval town of Senlis with Roman Gallo Walls and the lovely Hostellerie de la Porte-Bellon.

The Hotel has ample parking, a lovely Garden Restaurant, beautiful rooms, fantastic breakfasts and in the evening, fine dining. 

This may have been our best trip ever, but still, it is great to be back home.

Gina