Sunday, September 9, 2012

Alpe di Siusi Plateau to St. Ulrich

I am sad to say that we have lost all the pictures of today's hike. . .I am not sure where they are but they have been deleted from the camera :-(!

The hike took us through green pastures and undulating terrain. . . horses and cows scattered the landscape!  We traveled through the Val Gardena , one of the most expansive alpine meadowlands in Europe!  We stopped at the famous Plattkofel Hutte, where we had the BEST apple strudel that I have ever eaten!!!  We then hiked about an hour more through the meadows and woods of the Alpe di Siusi plateau.  We had a wonderful lunch and then hike across the plateau to the cable car that brought us down to St. Ulrich.

We had time to shower and then walk through the very cute town of St. Ulrich.  There are a series of pedestrian only streets that have cute shops and cafes.

I have to say that we have experienced some AMAZING cuisine this trip!  Every breakfast, lunch and dinner has been more delicious than the last!  Tonight we went to a restaurant that made wonderful thin crust pizza. . . I was in heaven!

We are now in the portion of Italy that is known as the South Tyrol.  Three languages are spoken here, Italian, German, and Ladin (Romansch).  Ladin has its origins to 15 BC, when Druso, a stepson of the Roman Emperor Augustus, conquered this region.  Ladin is a combination of ancient Latin and mountain Celtic.  Napoleon conquered South Tyrol and placed it under the Austrian Habsburgs.  They ruled here until it was returned to Italy after WWI.  in 1938 an agreement between Hitler and Mussolini provided for extensive forced migration of the German-speaking population to Germany of other parts of Italy.  in 1943, the South Tyrol was occupied by Germany, but returned to Italian rule in 1945 at the end of WWII.  Today the South Tyrol is 70% German speaking, 26% Italian speaking and 4% Ladin speaking.

We have tried some of the regional cuisine during our stay.  Speck is very popular, it is lean pork that has been cured with juniper berries and other spices, wood smoked and then aged for months.  It is pretty good and I like in a dish with sunny side up eggs and potatoes!  The other thing we tried was Canederli which are bread dumplings with cheese, speck, or spinach in them.  They are the size of a tennis ball!  They are served in broth or butter!

Well tomorrow we leave here and travel to Corvara.  We are staying at a 5 Star hotel so it will be a time for a little rejuvenation!  

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