My plan for Italy was to spend a week hiking the Dolomites, then two weeks kayaking from Venice to Trieste – if the weather was good. It wasn’t. I waited on Isola Lido near Venice for three days to launch my kayak but the weather remained cool and drizzly.

So I put my kayak in storage and went hiking in Cinque Terre instead. Cinque Terre is on the Ligurian Coast near Genoa. There are small villages built into the cliffs overlooking the Mediterranean every few miles and hiking trails that link the villages. It is a beautiful area and a popular hiking destination so it gets pretty crowded in the spring when the weather is pleasant. But except for the most popular trail along the coast from Monterosso to Vernazza you can usually hike all day and see few hikers until you reach a village.

The trails are steep, often climbing from the coastal villages for an hour or two and then traversing the top of the cliffs before descending to the next village. Along the trails are olive groves and lemon orchards and vinyards that are only accessible on foot. Then as you descend towards the sea you catch glimpses of the village you are approaching clinging to the cliffs. Once you’ve reached the village it’s time for a tasty Italian lunch – the seafood in Cinque Terre is outstanding.

One day I took the train to Genoa and wandered around. As one would expect in the hometown of Christopher Columbus there is a huge port with thousands of boats, everything from feluccas to mega-yachts.

After a few days in Cinque Terre I headed to Milan for some urban hiking.

There is a really nice new neighborhood, Porta Nuova, that I liked.

Via Della Spiga and the Quadrilatero Della Moda is always a scenic hiking area.

I ended my hiking vacation in Italy with a few days in Trento.

Trento is on the western side of the Dolomites and is on the route to the Brenner Pass, so it is a bit more of a tourist destination than Feltre. The hiking was excellent, but an unexpected highlight was the train trip through the Dolomites on the way back to Venice. It was the most scenic train trip I’ve been on in many years. Some day I would like to ride a bike along this route.

Feltre is just an hour and a half drive from Marco Polo Airport in Venice. For the first hour you drive across a flat plain without even realizing there are mountains ahead. It almost always seems to be hazy, so visibility is limited. And then, without ever seeing the mountains in the distance, you are in the mountains and they are stunningly beautiful, rising almost vertically all around you with idyllic villages dotting the valleys and clinging to the cliffs.

The area is sparsely populated (even Venice only has a population of 60,000 actual residents) and except for the A27 between Venice and Ponte Nelle Alpi, the roads are narrow (the equivalent of a one way road in the US but with two way traffic) and twisty. Feltre is one of the larger towns in the region – probably about 20,000 people – and has a very nice and active downtown with lots of cafes, restaurants, and shops. There is also the ‘Centro Storico’ – the old walled city dating from Roman times – with a lot of really nice boutiques, bars, and restaurants that never seem to do any business but always seem to survive. Feltre doesn’t change much. The bookstore where I bought my Italian English Dictionary 30 years ago is still there. Next door the Garbujo bakery has been in business since 1870. I’m pretty sure about 80% of the businesses were there 30 years ago.

The nice thing about hiking in Europe is that camping is rarely allowed. Instead there are huts or refuges every few miles where hikers sleep and eat. So you don’t need to carry any gear or food – you just walk for a couple of hours and stop at a refuge for lunch, then walk a little more in the afternoon and stop for dinner. Unfortunately many of the refuges don’t open until mid June and in late April there was still snow at the higher elevations, so I had to limit my hiking to a few areas that were open. My first day I hiked at Val Canzoi where I had been before. It’s a beautiful area where you start hiking around a lake, and then climb along a river into the mountains. The refuge at the beginning of the trail is open all year and serves some of the best food I’ve ever eaten in a restaurant. 

I got in one more full day of hiking the next day. Then on Friday I stopped by to visit my dad’s family, and after that I did more eating than hiking. On Saturday afternoon my dad’s cousin Angelo took me hiking on Monte Grappa, and I remember doing the same trip when I visited 30 years ago. We drove up the back roads and first stopped to check Angelo’s casera, or summer farm, about half way up the mountain. After that we stopped every couple of miles at some refuge or bar for an espresso and Angelo would visit with his friends there for a few minutes, then we’d move on to the next place. At the top we parked and walked about a quarter of a mile to the lookout, then we drove back down on a different road, stopping every few minutes for espresso. I think Angelo might do this every Saturday.

I don’t know if the food in this region is especially good or if it just seems that way to me because it reminds me of the food my grandmother cooked, but I really eat well when I am there. If I had to guess at what makes it good I think it is because everything is fresh – I don’t think my dad’s relatives have a freezer – and because they use a lot of really good cheese and fresh butter. Some of the highlights from this trip; gnocchi with a pumpkin sauce, pastine in brodo, risotto with fresh vegetables, polenta with melted cheese and butter, and spaghetti pomodoro. I wish I could bring some home with me.

I never made it inside the Blue Mosque or Hagia Sofia – too crowded for me. I did go to the Archaeology Museum, which was fantastic even though much of it was closed due to construction. There aren’t many other places where you can see a 4,000 year old Sumerian shopping list written on a stone tablet. The collection is vast, with artifacts from the beginning of western civilization through the Roman and Byzantine periods. Just the junk in the hallway to the men’s room would make a pretty good museum.

One day I took a boat up the Bosporus to the Black Sea, and another day I took a ferry to Buyukada Island in the Marmara Sea and rode a bike around the island (a popular pastime – it was crowded even on a weekday). I got up early one morning (jet lag) and ran a few miles along the Bosporus as the sun came up and the city was still quiet. Without the traffic and crowds you can really appreciate the amazing views. Unfortunately the city is so large and spread out that it is impossible to take a photograph that shows its beauty.

For me the best days were spent wandering around the different parts of the city. Like most European cities Istanbul has areas dedicated to certain commodities – a shoe district, a hardware district, and so on. But because Istanbul is so large (about 20 million people) the areas are huge. Instead of a street dedicated to shoe stores, there are several blocks of shoe stores – hundreds if not thousands of shoe stores with every imaginable type of shoe. 

There is also more specialization. There is one street of stores that sell nothing but springs, and another that has nothing but belt buckles. You can buy raw materials for making belt buckles, machinery for making belt buckles, and any style of belt buckle, but if you want a belt you have to go somewhere else – this street only has buckles (I’m sure there is another street somewhere that only has belts). 

Like everywhere, prices are proportional to how close you are to a tourist attraction. A leather jacket might be $100 at the Grand Bazaar, which seems like a pretty good deal. Walk a couple of miles down the street to a market with fewer tourists, however, and the same jacket will be $10. No, I didn’t buy anything.

Another thing that seems universal is the idea that all problems are caused by foreigners, usually illegal immigrants. In Turkey that means Syrians. There really aren’t that many homeless people here, but several people told me the Syrian beggars are ruining the place. And apparently Istanbul was virtually crime free until Syrians showed up a couple of years ago. When I get to Italy the sentiment will be the same, but it will be Libyans instead of Syrians. And at home of course it’s those damned Canadians.

I also am amazed at how hard people outside the U.S. work. The man at the front desk of my hotel has been there every day for about 12 hours a day. I asked when is his day off and he said when business is slow. When is that? November.

Istanbul is a great city for those of us who prefer tea to coffee. One is offered tea everywhere, usually free. If you are looking in a shop window the proprietor will often invite you in for tea. At breakfast You get tea unless you ask for coffee, and after dinner they bring you tea. It is usually chai ( much milder and better tasting than our chai) served in a small glass beaker.

All in all it’s been a nice visit. The weather has been very nice. The tulips are in bloom. The people are hospitable. The sights are fine. The food is good. What’s not to like? 

In the morning I leave for the Dolomites.

Got to my hotel at about 8pm, then walked around for a few hours to stretch my legs (yes, I got lost). It’s a beautiful city and people are really friendly and helpful here. Looking forward to seeing more of it tomorrow.

Here is a link to the map for my hiking trip to Italy (Click Here – Map of Venice to Trieste) or you can select the ‘Kayak the Adriatic’ link at the top of the page.

The weather isn’t looking good for hiking in the Dolomites the week of 21 – 28 April 2015 – the forecast is for rain every day. I may have to do something else. I do hope the weather improves in May – I won’t kayak if it rains every day.