Via Romea Germanica Day 70: San Michele all'Adige - Trento

Und nun, wenn es Abend wird, bei der milden Luft wenige Wolken an den Bergen ruhen, am Himmel mehr stehen als ziehen, und gleich nach Sonnenuntergang das Geschrille der Heuschrecken laut zu werden anfängt, da fühlt man sich doch einmal in der Welt zu Hause und nicht wie geborgt oder im Exil.

(As evening draws near, and in the still air a few clouds can be seen resting on the mountains, standing on the sky rather than drifting across it, or when, immediately after sunset, the loud shrill of crickets is heard, I feel at home in the world, neither a stranger nor an exile.)

- Goethe, Italian Journey, written in Trento (11 September 1786)

We began our day following the cycling route on the top of the embankment between the motorway and the Adige river for four kilometres from San Michele all'Adige to Nave San Rocco, where we crossed the river to Nave San Felice; the word nave means boat, and in fact this was historically a point for crossing the river by ferry. 

We crossed over the bridge and climbed from Nave San Felice along the route of the ancient Roman Via Claudia Augusta, which I last saw somewhere around Shongau in Germany, through the village of Pressano and back down into the town of Lavis.

Fountain in Pressano

Pressano

Pressano

Lavis

Lavis

St. Ulrich in Lavis

We stopped in at the town hall in Lavis to ask for a stamp on our pilgrim credentials, chatted with the volunteer in the fair trade shop, and then sat in the church of St. Ulrich listening to the organist practicing. We then left the town behind, crossing a bridge over the river Avisio and climbing a steep trail with a view over the mid-nineteenth-century Giardino di Ciucioli botanical gardens, with their castle-like construction on the opposite hill.

Bright colours in Lavis

Crossing the Avisio

A pleasant path through the woods brought us over the hill, into the vineyards and down to the village of Gazzadina; a paved path, or small road, among the vineyards brought us to Meano, where we stopped for lunch on a shady bench by a drinking fountain. 

We carried on, following the route of the Via Claudia Augusta, including some sections where the old stone pavement is still visible. 

This pleasant path unfortunately joined the highway along the top of the ridge above the outskirts of the city of Trento. But there was not a lot of traffic so it was not too bad walking along the road to Martignano. This urban area created the illusion that we were coming into Trento and about to reach our destination, only to lead us back out into the country along a paved road with a concrete wall above the sidewalk: just the thing on a warm and sunny afternoon 😄! The morning had been cooler and partly cloudy, perfect for walking, but by afternoon we were beginning to bake on the cement. Eventually we turned off the main road to follow a trail through a park located on the site of the former marble quarry that gave the city of Trento its construction materials: red and white marble. The former quarry is now a park covered with scrubby brush and riddled with a network of trails; the main trail brought us out onto the road just above the Sanctuary of Madonna delle Laste. Going inside for a moment in a spirit of gratitude for our safe arrival, I heard voices rhythmically chanting the Ave Maria over and over again in a hidden side chapel. Just below the chapel was the gate to the complex where we are staying tonight: Villa Sant'Ignazio. 

It took us some time to find our way around this massive complex, a residence for people who "are getting their lives back on track after a setback of some kind", run by a social solidarity cooperative. First of all, we had to find the right building, then find the right door to get inside, and lastly find the reception desk and the person with the key to our room. Mission accomplished, we showered and rested a little before walking down the steep hill to the historic town centre of Trento, passing through the Torre Acquila city gate and past the castle. At the Romanesque cathedral of San Vigilio, constructed from 1212 onwards, we were lucky enough to run into the priest (or bishop?), who took us into the sacristy to get the official cathedral stamp on our pilgrim credentials. 

The stamp occupied the last square on Mariella's credential, completing her record of her walk from the Brenner Pass to Trento over the past ten days; tomorrow she will take a train home, where family matters require her attention.  It has been great to have her company walking almost 200 kilometres across Alto Adige, and I will miss her on the stages to come!

Red marble streets of Trento 

A toast to a successful walk, with a glass of Trento DOC rosé

Later in the evening I met up with a friend/daughter of a friend, Sarah, who grew up with my kids in Chiavari and is now doing post-doc research in Rovereto, half an hour's drive from Trento. She came by to say hello and we sat on a bench in the park of Villa Sant'Ignazio catching up on the events of the past decade or so.

San Michele all'Adige - Trento 22 km

Via Romea Germanica Day 69: Kurtatsch - San Michele all'Adige

Quanto si perdono quelli che non ospitano i pellegrini! Quanta noia del vivere c'è nel non aprire le porte a ciò che transita, al nuovo, all'inatteso, al non previsto! Quando si smette di provare meraviglia si muore dentro.

(People who don't host pilgrims miss out on so much! How boring is a life in which you don't open your doors to passers-by, to the new, the unexpected, the unforeseen! When you cease to feel a sense of wonder, you die inside.)

- Angela Seracchioli, Passi che si incrociano (2007)

Our hostess Elena perusing my collection of stamps in my pilgrim credential 

On the Via Romea Germanica I have stayed with people who volunteer to host pilgrims in their homes, and with members of Servas International, such as Elena and Giuvani, in whose home we have stayed for the past two nights. They also happen to be the parents of my daughter's former roommate, with whom she shared an apartment while studying in The Hague; I met their daughter Emma when she visited us in Tuscany. So when I saw that the whole family are members of Servas, I didn't hesitate to request hospitality; Elena and Giuvani didn't hesitate to agree, even though Elena is currently nursing a broken arm and has difficulty performing ordinary household chores. This spirit of hospitality and generosity is one of the things that makes the Via Romea Germanica unlike other, more popular and crowded pilgrimage walks; the Germans call it Ein Weg der Begegnung: a Way of Encounters. 

Elena and Giuvani's home is a few kilometres off our route, but we have been able to "commute" to the trail and back using the handy Südtirol bus service: sometimes confusing, but efficient and regular, serving all the little villages dotting the landscape of Alto Adige. 

This morning, however, we literally started off on the wrong foot, waiting for the bus on the wrong side of the street; the schedules posted at the stop must have been for the stops on both sides, because at the appointed time our bus whizzed by on the opposite site, stopping at another bus stop a few hundred metres further along the road. We crossed over and waited for the next bus, then had to wait half an hour for our connecting bus in Kaltern, but we eventually managed to get to Kurtatsch, the place where we had stopped walking the day before. 

We walked out of Kurtatsch, we joined the Weinlehrpfad, a didactic path through the vineyards with information panels about viticulture. And we saw our first olive groves on the Via Romea Germanica, along with fig trees growing spontaneously along the path: sure signs that we are heading into the Mediterranean climate!

It's not fig season yet, but we joined a cyclist who had paused to pick medlars (nespole in Italian) and eat them straight off the tree. A delicious and refreshing fruit that I tend to neglect! We paused at a tiny supermarket in Magré for another snack before heading through the town and the apple orchards to the other side of the valley.

We crossed under the railway line, then over the motorway and the river Adige to join the cycling route along the river, where the apple orchards and vineyards continued.

At the village of Laag or Laghetti we left the cycling track to walk through the town and then follow a narrow road with the base of steep cliffs on our left, while the vineyards and orchards continued to our right. 

Several kilometres down this road we came to Salorno, a town which did not make a great impression on us - but that may have been due to the grey, muggy weather. We stopped only long enough to refill our water bottles and eat a slice of take-out pizza before continuing out of the town and back to the cycling path along the Adige. We were heading toward the Salurner Klause or Chiusa di Salorno: a point where the cliffs towering on either side of the river valley almost converge, leaving only a narrow gap, which has acted as a natural barrier between the German-speaking and the Italian-speaking worlds since the 1600s. And in fact we passed from Alto Adige into Trentino, and the road signs were suddenly in the Italian language only!

First sign on the Via Romea Germanica without any German in it!

Second, more interesting sign in Italian only

Newly paved cycling track

Bike & Break - a bar for cyclists and walkers

Crossing the Adige

San Michele all'Adige 

We stopped for a beer at a bar beside the cycling track and then more cheerfully walked the final couple of kilometres into San Michele all'Adige, a town that has always held a strategic position, located on the north-south axis of the Via Claudia Augusta at the historic meeting point of the rivers Adige and Noce. Today it is right on the major motorway to the Brenner Pass, which probably accounts for the presence of our hotel, seeing as the town doesn't really seem like the sort of place people would come for a holiday. For us it's the perfect stopping point a day's walk before Trento. We stopped by the local supermarket on the way to our hotel and bought some ready-made dishes, so we don't even have to go out to eat and may even have time to watch a movie tonight - if either of us can figure out how to work the "smart" TV! 😅

Kurtatsch - San Michele all'Adige 24 km