Pictures from my vacation in Italy in September/October 2005

September 27 Shortly after this picture was taken, lightning bolts shot out of Bill's (kneeling) gloves and the sun came out and the roads dried out. Just kidding! I have no idea what Bill was attempting here.	September 27 This is Lina's, where we stopped for lunch near Valtina. There were lots of local dishes on the menu, everything prepared to order. I had a tasty warm bowl of spaetzle with cheese. Everyone raved about the dumpling soup here.	September 27 Due to the rain and fog, we decided not to take the standard route from here, which would have taken us through Merano and Bolzano. Instead, we turned back here and went back to the hotel through Bressanone (Brixen). We hit Brixen during rush hour and the traffic was quite heavy, making it hard to stay as a group. The ride today was 214 KM. This evening a few of us joined the evening wine tasting with Franz at our hotel. This wine tasting was different and more interesting than any I've been to in the US. It was also more educational, since it emphasized learning the difference between taste and smell, and the interplay between food and wine. The session ended with passing around small vials of scents and having us try to guess what each one was. I did very poorly on that (my sense of smell never has been the same after the pneumonia I had 20 years ago). However, Dan did quite well on this. One scent smelled like skunk to me, but turned out to be coffee (and I like coffee!!).	September 28 It was sunny today, and we rode over Passo di Gardena, through Corvara and then over Passo di Valparola. This is the view from somewhere up Valparola, looking toward Corvara.
September 28 More of the mountains around Passo di Valparola.	September 28 More mountains...	September 28 I thought the fog over the town made for an interesting picture.	September 28 This is the view from Passo di Falzarego. There appears to be a glacier in the distance.