July 13, 2005

Word of the Day
paura: 1: fear 2: What JenFu feels when coming to a stop on a hill with cars behind him, realizing that he is going to stall and roll back uncontrollably into the trapped cars behind.

We almost went climbing today.

After a hearty night spent at the Olympia Campground in Fiames, I think we’ve found home for the next week or so. The campground has an international flare with even a little bit of English heard here and there. It is definitely European though…no noise is allowed between the hours of 13:00 and 15:00 (that’s 1 PM to 3 PM for the us Ameri-centric folk).

Corinne slept in, nursing her persisting cold. I, instead, investigated the river as well as more of the “Celestine Prophecy”, a book given to me by a good friend.

At 15:00, we did manage to find the camp host who signed us up and gave us the remote transmitter to get us in and out of the front gate. In turn, she held onto my passport to ensure that I was not one of those undesirables that the gate was designed to keep out.

After a short drive up a steep road, we came upon Passo Falzerego, where most of the climbs we will be undertaking are located. It is definitely a beautiful country with the appropriate number of people stopping there to enjoy it. The espresso was delicious as were the views of the peaks.

Corinne and I took one more step closer to climbing. It was too late to do the 250 meter (that’s 825 feet for the Ameri-centric folks like me, again) route, so we opted to learn a bit of history.

Along the cliffs sit many military encampments from the Austri-Hungarian War. These date back to 1915 when the machine gun was born. In the limestone cliffs were tunnels, burrowed for the soldiers to live and breathe war. It was not unlike the lives of the marmots that we saw up there. These unfortunate soldiers lived in these holes, coming out only to “hunt” for the enemy. It was fortunate that we had our headlamps which allowed us to visit this experience for a short time. That was enough.

As the sun set, it was time to descend back into town. Cortina is lovely, with small side streets, and historic buildings. Then again, it would be like Disney with convincing facades. If this was an illusion, don’t wake me. It was simply beautiful.

Dinner was at a little restaurant which served dozens of types of pizza. I had the pizza with prosciutto and fresh mozzarella (which is a redundant term in Italy). The pizza was the thinnest I’ve had, something I learned to appreciate from “A”. Come to think of it, so was my fascination with prosciutto.

Driving back was surprisingly uneventful. We located the appropriate street signs and found our way back to the Olympia Campground, a few whole minutes before the gates were locked and secured for the night at 23:00. It was like having a curfew again. Would I have to take out the garbage in the morning?

It’s time to retire for the night so new adventures can begin tomorrow. Too bad a had the espresso after dinner. Oh bother…