Trento? Never heard of it…

Piazza Duomo with Fontana di Nettuno

The cheapest train ticket from Treviso I could find put me in Trento, Italy. I originally wanted to go to Bolzano (Bozen) but the price was 3x as expensive as I expected. Trento was far enough north that I could hitch easily enough to kill some time in Austria or Germany before heading to Zurich to meet up with a friend from home, Amy. When I arrived at the Trento train station, I looked at ticket prices to other locations further north to make sure I didn’t have any other alternatives but was unhappy with the price of the tickets. If you recall, I had terrible luck trying to hitch through Italy. I decided to try my luck at hitching from this point. As I walked out of the train station, I noticed the weather was absolutely gorgeous. When I started to turn around in a 360, I saw nothing but mountains surrounding the town. I settled my look across the street at a park and a vast map of Trento was displayed. I bounced over to check it out and after glancing at the key, I discovered a youth hostel in town. I was so captivated with the charm of the town, I decided to walk the 2 minutes to the hostel and check their rates. If they were reasonable, I would stay and spend a couple nights. At 14 euro a night, I wasn’t disappointed and decided to book 2 nights. I spent the first day walking up and down the streets looking at the plazas and finding out what there was to do in town from the tourist office. Nobody in the hostel that I met seemed around my age or interested in hanging out. In fact, I think one of the guys was rather glad to see me leave on my last day. That morning, I apparently took too long in the shower and he actually knocked on the door. I spent 17 minutes in the bathroom from shit to shower to exit. I clocked him. He spent 11 minutes just showering…. D-bag! Next time wake up earlier.

Adige River

Anyway, my only full day in town I decided to do some hiking. I had breakfast, did a bit of research on the hiking trails, and then hit the path. I wanted to climb Monte Bondone. I was a bit overzealous, because I had absolutely no idea how long the trail was. I knew the vertical rise was about 2,000m, but the actual distance I couldn’t find on any trail maps. I left Trento on foot and hiked up to Sardagna, which overlooks the town from about 500m above. I continued on but wasn’t making the greatest of time. I only ended up going vertically to about 1200m or so, but with an average incline of 12.5% (According to the posted signs) when I hit 2pm I decided to take a break for lunch and then head back down. I ended up taking the gondola down from Sardagna to take in some 360 views of the valley. Once I arrived back at the hostel, I showered up and went looking for some food. I settled (yea… right…) for pizza since it was my last night in Italy. It was a deliciously greasy “personal” sized pie for my belly to enjoy called the Trentina. I couldn’t tell you what was on it, but damn, was it good.  I enjoyed my time in Italy, but I’m definitely not sad to be setting sail for another country. The next morning I took a 2 euro train to Bolzano and hitched my way to Munich where my CS host was waiting. In the bag!

Panorama of Trento

2011 Europe - Trento