italy: meran/merano

there are a few cities in the northeastern area of italy known by two names...this is because this area of italy used to be part of austria, so german is still spoken...i wish proper names around the world would be consistent, and this is an example of where they are not...the city in which bo lives is either meran, or merano, depending on which language you are using...
we drove from verona to meran (bo drove, i fell asleep, ooops!)...the weather turned crappy, with low hanging clouds, and some rain, so even if i hadn't been asleep i still would not have been able to enjoy the beautiful scenery...it was also much cooler than i was prepared for, ugh..

we walked into the city centre for dinner, though i hate that kind of weather...windy and rainy, yuck...we went to a brewery for dinner, which had typical sudtirolean food, (think german, not italian)...yum, but probably not terribly healthy as it was pretty heavy...
before falling asleep we watched the netherlands/mexico football game...(the world cup had moved into elimination stages)...everything exciting happened in the last three minutes of the game, i felt so bad for mexico...

merano is in a long valley filled with trees...apples, pears, apricots, cherries and more...plus there are a heap of small vineyards...there is no reason to eat storebought produce...
the next morning after a fantastic breakfast that included homemade apricot marmelade, we went for a short hike a little above meran...continuing with the austrian habit of creating trails for hiking and other outdoor pursuits, there are hiking trails all over the area...i would love living in this area, it's stunning! i kept stopping just to take it all in (and the weather was fantastic, which was another reason to enjoy myself)...

oddly enough the postcards i bought in the village we passed through were half the price of the postcards in downtown merano...i would've expected the prices to be the same...in this same village we stopped for a snack, mainly because i will take every chance i get to have an himbeer becher...YUM...this is when bo told me that radlers in this area are made with lemonade instead of sprite...(a radler in bayern - southern germany - is made with sprite and bier...think of it as the perfect refreshing drink after a hike up a mountain)...

on the way back down into town my legs felt like jello...am i really that out of shape? more motivation to spend more time in this area, hiking to get back to being fit...might as well do it in a beautiful place, right?
merano in the sun and a bit warmer is awesome...it still feels like a small town, though there are about 50,000 people there...it doesn't feel like 'italy'...it felt a lot like being back in garmisch-partenkirchen...it felt like home :)
we went to the library, bo uses the library for wifi, which keeps his online time to a reasonable amount of time...

we also went to the train station so i could get tickets for my next destination...we stopped at a non touristy place for more gelato (totally unnecessary, but so good!)...we stopped for dinner at a cheap place serving falafel, my meal was HUGE...i was unable to finish everything on my plate, hee hee...(probably because we'd just had gelato)...
while doing all that walking we walked past the therma, the sight of one of the baths in meran...this town is known for it's stunning scenery, and the thermal springs...these were first developed by the romans way back in the day, and have been redeveloped a few times since...

i think the latest reincarnation opened just a few years ago? we didn't have time to enjoy them during this trip (but probably would've if it had continued to rain, as i hate being outside in the rain) but they made it on my list of reasons to come back!
on the way home we stopped at a grocery store and picked up snacks for the hike bo planned for the next day...so many choices of yummy food i don't get in ukraine...
another great breakfast the next morning (apple/pear marmelade this time, i wondered what the next day was going to offer)...

we went back to the train station to catch a local bus to the starting point of our hike...from that point we rode a 'disney chair' type of lift halfway up the mountain...AWESOME...i loved being able to look down the valley, it's beautiful...
the hike itself was an over and down sort of route...we could've skipped the ride up, but that would've made the hike longer and harder than either of us was prepared for...the across part was 90minutes plus, with plenty of smaller ups and downs...we found wild raspberries, which i love...
the way down took us back into the village of yesterday, coming very close to a couple castles on the hill...i loved it...toward the end the trail took us through an apple orchard, how awesome is that? we saw people raking hay/grass by hand, as it's too steep for any machinery...we walked past a few cherry trees with GIANT cherries, we seriously considering climbing up to pick a few :)

of course as we got to a village we stopped for gelato, at a different place...yum...(i'm in italy, there is no such thing as too much gelato)...
dinner was back in merano, cheap pizza this time...when we got home both of us were a bit sore from two hikes in as many days, so we did a bit of yoga/stretching on the balcony...it felt fantastic :)...this is the life! that night argentina beat switzerland again in the last few minutes of the game, (i didn't know who to cheer for, i've got friends in both countries) in the 2nd overtime, we both fell asleep when the USA/Belgium game was still tied 0-0...