Monte Ortigara

4th October

Yesterday another big walk up a mountain.... (yes another one). This time Monte Ortigara, on the the Asiago plateau above town where we are staying. Monte Ortigara was the scene of wholesale slaughter in WW1....  but apparently the battle was a turning point in the war. Anyway there are Italian and Austro-Hungarian monuments atop the peaks of the apposing front lines, the whole area is an ecomuseum  of the war and there are lots of remaining trenches, caves etc.  Walk v strenuous - from altitude 1770m at the capark to 2095 at peak.. dozen't sound much, but path  up and down! We were crunching through snow fallen overnight. In all we were walking for 6 or so hours!  Frank was interested as his grandfather was involved in war at this site.
ps totally wrecked. As I said to Frank, 6 hours of walking a doddle, but uphill toil and then treacherous downhill on large loose stones not!!!  Mind you, he was just as wrecked.

Me trudging up the track.. this is the good bit

Standing in the snow

Edelweiss in the snow

Remains of WW1 tunnels

From a tunnel over the mountain tops

Me dragging myself uphill to the peak

Italian monument Broken Column to symbolize lives lost... don't know how they got it up there, went up in the 1920s.

Today we drove to Treviso, a city on the plains about 70 ks east. GPS came up with 2 hours for the trip, route non-stop towns and the traffic was horrendous.
Treviso apparently 5th richest city in Italy, home of Bennetton, lots of Italian shoe makers and leathergoods.... and more importantly...prosecco... the prosecco DOC Valdobbiadene can only be made in the area....   not sure if that is the prosecco we are getting on tap at the hotel we are staying at for 1.5 euro...lol.

Treviso old part is walled, also seems to be a moat, to be sure, to be sure. Similar to walking around Venice(but not really) and apparently belonged to Venice in history. To be honest I got a bit annoyed, as all the things I had earmarked to see, were -by the time we got there- closed for lunch.... siesta 12 to 15.30.... what a way to run a country!., Two of the things were in the duomo and a church... what, close a church at lunchtime? Anyway I had to forget about the Titan in the Duomo

Treviso canal

Typical Treviso street, in old walled part

The seven domed Duomo....closed for lunch

Many old painted houses... faded now of course

Colonnaded footpaths aplenty

Canals of Treviso

Another closed church

Not quite the Grand Canal but very pleasant