Fri 14 September - Sporthotel Floralpina, Seiseralm

Today is our last day of walking, tomorrow we will travel back down to Venice and on Monday we will fly back to Edinburgh airport. We cannot believe how quickly the fortnight has passed.

When we awake it is still cold and there is still snow on the mountains. There has been a hard frost last night. The weather forecast though says its going to be scorching later in the day. Alistair wants to climb to the top of Plattkofel, but I am not feeling that great and so we decide to do the medium level option walk to the Langkofelhutte instead.

We take a few hundred meters off our journey by taking the cable car up to the Williams Hutte. The bus has just come in from Kastelruth and there are around fifty people ahead of us in the queue for the cable car. The queue moves quickly though and we are soon on our way. We've taken our rucksacks off prior to getting on the cable car and so there are no pathetic moans from Alistair about not being able to breathe!

At Williams Hutte there are fantastic panoramic views of all the mountains, still dusted in snow. After looking around we set off for the Murmetier Hutte at 2132 meters above sea level. It seems like most people are going up to Plattkofel and so it's quite peaceful here. We hear a few marmots squeaking, but other that that it's very quiet.

Path 527 is a really beautiful route, it passes under the peaks and rock walls of Plattkofel, then crosses a hanging valley. The walking notes say this is a good place for a picnic, but today it is frosty, shaded and mysterious. We then start along a narrow path alongside the mountain, hemmed in by solid rock walls. There are a couple of recent landslides here and we pick our way over the rubble. We then turn a corner and see Langkofelhutte framed up between the mountains and the blue sky. As we turn onto the wide steep path zigzagging up to the Hutte I don't know whether to laugh or cry as everything is so beautiful. We slog ever upwards to the Hutte, where we partake of some much needed refreshments.

The food at Langkofelhutte is lovely, the staff are very polite (and the Italian climber who serves us quite nice eyecandy)! The building itself is picturesque. If Carlsberg did mountain huttes this would be the blue print. There is still quite a bit of snow here, which seems incongruous given the blue sky. From outside the Hutte we can see all the hills we have climbed during the last week. It really is a splendid finale to our fortnight's walking holiday in the Dolomites.

We take our time coming down from the mountain, we are in no rush to leave this all behind. We join the Santner Weg and follow it downhill. We sit for a while in a big clearing, where all we can here is the chirping of birds and the occasional rock falling. We start walking again, leaving the main trail to walk across a meadow, then join the main route again to walk down into Saltria. It has been a lovely walk and a fitting goodbye to the Dolomites.

Thurs 13 September - Sporthotel Floralpina, Seiseralm

Today we leave the Hotel Plaza at Compatsch and walk over to the Sporthotel Floralpina at Saltria and with it a further opportunity to climb to the top of the Sciliar. We awake early as we know it will be a long day. I get up and look out of the window to see what the weather is like. The forecast said it would be overcast but dry in the morning, becoming sunny in the afternoon. I peep round the curtains and start to laugh hysterically. Outside it's a winter wonderland, everything is covered in snow!

Outside on the balcony it feels like a cold winter's day. There is a brisk wind too. Well there will be no climbing of the Sciliar today either. Alistair cannot hide his disappointment. I tell him we need to take today for what it is, which I have to say is very different from how I imagined our holiday!

We go down to breakfast unable to decide what we're going to do today. Inntravel offer four options for today, an eight kilometre route to the Hotel Floralpina via the Almrosen Hutte (which we've never been able to pinpoint on our map). We decide this option will get us there too quickly, as will the second option following paths 30 and 7/S3 - a seven kilometre walk. A third option is to go via the Rosszahne Gap and the Tierser Alpe Hutte, a beautiful 15km walk, but this is a high route and not suitable for today, the fourth is the long high route via Rifugio Bolzano, the Tierser Alpe Hutte and the Sciliar, which we've already discounted.

After breakfast we go back to the room, pack up our stuff, then study the maps for inspiration. As I mentioned earlier, the paths around here are really well signposted and, except on the high mountains, are quite wide tracks, so we decide to make up our own route. We plan a route where we can switch paths / easily turn back if required. I have to admit I'm only half listening to what Alistair is saying. On these holidays he has control of the map and I have control of the notes, as we're planning our own route, there are no notes and I leave everything to him.

We leave Compatsch on route 7. I'm wearing a long sleeved t-shirt, long trousers, my waterproof /wind proof jacket and my hat. I still have a fleece, my waterproof trousers and gloves in my rucksack, which I can put on if needs be. Alistair is kitted out in long trousers, a short sleeved t-shirt, a fleece, gloves, a woolly hat and sunglasses. He too has further clothes to put on in his rucksack. We felt a bit silly packing all our winter walking gear a couple of weeks ago, but not today! As walking is our main hobby, we do it a lot and have spent quite a bit on good gear. It certainly pays off on days like this. Although it's freezing I'm like a little furnace as we walk up past Santner.

As I expected, there are loads of people out walking the lower paths today, everyone wants to take pictures and experience the snow. Just before the Goldknopf Hotel, there is a party of about twenty five to thirty people ahead, we overtake them one by one. The paths here are also roads and they are clear of snow, but the surrounding fields are still covered and we pass a poor horse trying to find some grass to munch.

Later we pass the Almrosen Hutte, which we discover is only marked as "Schwaige" on our map - hence the reason we could never locate it. Past the Mahlknecht Hutte, the path stops being road and is quite slushy and slippery. There is a stream we have to cross, which is quite icy, afterwards Alistair tells me there was a woman helping a blind man across! They are two very brave and determined people!

Just before the area where the Dialer Hutte used to stand, we turn off onto route 8. We're getting higher now (2145 meters above sea level) and the snow has drifted a bit and the path is covered in ice. Alistair reminds me that we can turn back at any time. I'm not really worried by the ice, it's no worse than walking through Glasgow City Centre a couple of winters ago. There are no steep drops, so it doesn't seem all that dangerous. There are far fewer people on this track. Our progress is obviously spotted by some marmots, as although we cannot see them, we hear their shrill calls reverberating around the mountains.

We finally pick our way through the snow and ice and make it to the very windy Tierser Alpe Hutte at 2440 meters above sea level. It's warm inside, but that is the only thing going for the hutte. We are approached by a really arrogant waiter who rattles off something in German so fast that we cannot make out anything he is saying. Finally, after Alistair tries a couple of times to speak a bit of German to him to find out what he is saying, he says in perfect English that we need to order from the other waiter. I'm not sure why he needed to come over to tell us that! We order and a few moments later he comes over with two bowls of soup in his hands. Alistair has ordered soup for himself, but pasta for me, so he checks that he's only bringing us one soup. The waiter brusquely tells us he knows it was one soup. The cappuccino coffees he serves us are awful, the coffee is really bitter, like it's been burnt, but we can't face the bother of complaining. We jokingly say we wouldn't be surprised if he spat in them on the way over! We leave thinking it's just as well they've got such a captive audience, as their customer service leaves a little bit to be desired!

As we leave, I ask Alistair which direction we're bound next. He tells me back down to Dialer, along route 8, then route 9 to the Floralpina. So we slithered all the way up to Tierser Alpe Hutte just for the hell of it, better still we've now got to negotiate the icy paths on our way down! Alistair says he told me this all along and that was why he said we could turn back at any point. Actually I'm glad I misunderstood him, otherwise I'd not have agreed to go up to the Tierser Alpe Hutte, which felt quite an achievement given the weather.

The rest of the walk is a doddle, as it's much warmer once we pass the area where the Dialer Hutte once stood and it's all downhill. The snow has disappeared completely from the lower paths and the sun is trying to come out.

When we arrive at the Sporthotel Floralpina the receptionist confirms that snow in early September in the Dolomites is a very rare occurrence. So we decide to think we have been lucky seeing it in such a different light.

Weds 12 September - Hotel Plaza, Seiseralm

We were told a few days ago that the weather would be fine until Wednesday, then it wouldn't be so good. It looks like the weather forecasters in Northern Italy are much better than those in the UK, because they seem to have got it right. It's very grey outside.

We had hoped to climb the Sciliar today, but it's a high route and shouldn't be attempted in bad weather, so we have breakfast, then ask for the password to the hotel's free Wifi to look up the weather forecast. What we see isn't good. It's meant to be fine up until lunchtime, then heavy rain all afternoon through to 5am tomorrow. The temperature is also set to plummet to -2 degrees overnight. We can't really believe this, it was 26 degrees yesterday and last night we were sitting outside on the balcony in shorts and t-shirts.

It does feel cooler though. We decide that the best thing to do is to walk to Mont Seuc and take the cable car down to Ortisei (also known as St Ulrich). All plans for climbing the Sciliar are shelved until tomorrow.

For the first time I'm glad that I packed a couple of long sleeved t-shirts, as Alistair and I reckon it feels like it's around 11 degrees outside. This is the lowest temperature we both feel comfortable walking in without needing a jumper or coat.

It's quite a straightforward route and we march along at a brisk pace. Alistair gets a few weird looks from other walkers as they are all wrapped up, whilst he still has shorts on and a short-sleeved t-shirt, but then he is Scottish!

We follow route 6b and pass by the Sanon Hutte, but don't stop, as we only had breakfast a little while ago. There is a bit of boggy ground and after that, a section where two cows have taken up all the path. We stop to give them a scratch and notice that they have a yellow tag in each ear, one gives a number and the other a name. These two are Gloria and Heidi.

On the way to the Hotel Sonne Sole, there is a wall, which is a great place to put the camera on and set it to automatic so as to get shots of both of us with a splendid mountain backdrop. Unfortunately, there is a huge gaggle of German tourists there doing just that. They each go through the procedure of taking a group photo, then start showing each other all the other photos they have taken this holiday - it's going to take an age. Alistair is quite cross as he thinks it'll be raining by the time we get back and we'll miss the opportunity. A little further on the ground is quite marshy again, so he has the genius idea of screwing the camera onto the top of his walking pole and using that instead. The photo is duly taken. As usual, I'm not particularly worried as I hate having my photo taken!

Eventually, after a bit of a climb, we reach the cable car station, but bypass this for the moment to get to the top of Mont Seuc. There are some good views down, with just a few white clouds in the sky below. We wonder briefly whether we could have walked up to the Sciliar. I stop Alistair before we get to a telecoms pylon and mutter to him about microwaves. We then turn round and walk back to the cable car. After parting with €31 we receive two return tickets.

The journey down is as steep as the price - Mont Seuc is at 2005 meters above sea level and Ortisei is at 1265 meters. The first bit of the journey is a steep plummet over the side of the cliff. As we dangle hundreds of meters above the ground I try not to think about James Bond films and also how we would be rescued if the cable car was to stop.

Once at the bottom, I recognise Ortisei as somewhere we visited some ten years ago as part of a package trip. Alistair isn't so sure, but I'm convinced. We see a shop with walking poles on offer. I've had my very cheap walking pole for years now and think about refreshing it. The average price seems to be €35 for two Leki poles, then I stumble upon the most beautiful set of walking poles I have ever seen. They are feather light, but super strong and fold really small, making them ideal for taking on aircraft. They are also €125! Alistair agrees they are nice, but points out they don't have the removable handle and camera fixture that his has! I decide to look in other stores and see whether they are cheaper anywhere else. One of the few things I miss when I'm abroad is the ability to just surf the net on my phone and check prices.

We walk through the town and look at lots of stuff, when it starts to rain. So we head for a cafe and sit outside under cover. We're lucky to get our seat, because of course everyone has the same idea. After some refreshments and feeding of the sparrows (which I'm sure is forbidden) the downpour stops and we start to walk back through town. This is when we notice that all the shops are shut and with it, the opportunity to buy expensive walking poles! Then the rain starts again and this time it doesn't look like it's going to stop, so we head off back to the cable car.

We spend the whole of our journey up, putting on jumpers, waterproof trousers and coats. We also put the protective rain covers on our rucksacks. There is nothing to see outside of the cable car, it's all just mist. We can't even see when we're about to pull into the cable car station. Back up at the top it is teeming down with rain and noticeably colder, but at least the visibility isn't too bad.

We take the fastest route back to the hotel, surprisingly noticing only a few other people on the way! We are outwardly soaked by the time we reach the hotel in just over an hour, but our trousers and jumpers etc are dry. The great thing about the hotel being principally a skiing hotel is that they have a drying room and we leave everything there to dry. We agree there is no way we would have wanted to have been up a big pointy mountain in this weather.

Tues 11 September - Hotel Plaza, Seiseralm

We are genuinely sad to leave Kastelruth today. It's been really lovely having a base for a few days, which has avoided the need to keep packing up our stuff. There are also so many things to do around here from an outdoor perspective and just the right amount of amenities (shops, buses and an ice cream parlour). The Hotel Cavallino d'Oro has been great too - providing us with super food and free Wifi! The only thing we won't miss are the town's church bells, which start chiming at 6:00 every morning, every quarter of an hour until 22:30 and the large group of American cyclists and walkers who seem to get up at 6:00 then talk noisily in the square just outside our bedroom window!

We have decided to take option 2 to Compatsch since we have already been up to Marinzenhutte and as today's walk is a relatively short one, we take advantage and have an extra thirty minutes in bed, despite the noises previously mentioned! We also decide that since the first part of the walk follows the same paths as yesterday almost to Seis, that we will take the bus to Seis and walk up the route 1, joining the Inntravel walking notes a little later on. The paths are so good around here that it's quite OK to go off piste if you so choose.

Today is virtually all uphill and we start by climbing out of Seis and into the woods. We walk under the cable car that runs from Seis all the way up to Compatsch and cross over a Tarmac road from time to time, climbing steadily upwards. We pass a table with a large benches each side and two thrones at either end. It's beside a beautifully clear pool, full of ice cold water. Shortly afterwards, path 6 (Inntravel's route) comes in to join Route 1 and we're back on the notes again.

There's a lovely river by the side of our path and we follow it up to Bad Ratzes, now a large hotel, but where in the past people used to take the waters for their curative properties. After the hotel we cross the Rio Freddo (cold river, which is probably accurate) and follow a forest track. The walking notes (probably deliberately so as to give a lovely surprise) don't describe just how beautiful the walk up to the Prossliner Schwaige Hutte is, but between the views of the Scilar mountain and the endless supply of waterfalls it's an absolute gem. At 1832 meters it's quite a climb to the hut, but so rewarding when we reach it and sit with some drinks and a strudel admiring the view over to the Scilar and down to Seis.

We finally drag ourselves away and push on with the final 125 meter climb to bring us up to 1957 meters above sea level - our high point for the day. On the high alps at the top, their are 360 degree views of mountains, with a few pretty wooden chalets and barns dotted about.

We walk into Compatsch - it's not the prettiest of places, but will provide the perfect base for exploring this area. It's just a gathering of hotels with the odd shop and cable car and is crawling with day trippers. We finally find our hotel, after scouring the area, and for €6 per person per night are offered an upgrade to a room overlooking the mountains and with a balcony, which we take. Our luggage eventually turns up at 16:30, the day trippers go home and all is well with the world.

Mon 10 September - Hotel Cavallino d'Oro, Kastelruth

Today we decide to do the first Inntravel option of walks around Kastelruth. It's 17-20km long and will take us five-six hours to complete, but this is fine as we've been blessed with some lovely weather again.

We leave the hotel and cross over the main road through town, then up onto a Tarmac road which has way-marks for route 6. Once out of Kastelruth we walk over some lovely meadows and have good views of the mountains. The road we're on is part of a suggested running circuit and ahead of us is a wiry old man who looks in his seventies. He's in running shorts and whilst he's not going that fast, both Alistair and I agree we'd like to be that fit when we reach his age.

We cross over a small road, and pass by an ecological hotel, then walk to the church of St Valentin. It looks very pretty framed by the mountains. We then march down a concrete track, through a field with irrigation jets in full flow. We give them a wide birth and escape a soaking. We then carry on down the hill until we arrive at Seis. It's a nice enough place, but it doesn't seem to have the charm of Kastelruth. We stop at a bar for a drink, before continuing on our way through a residential area and over a busy road and escaping back into the countryside. We pass a sign for the Restaurant Pizzeria Salegg, which also promises "discotheque" and "dancing". We wonder what discos without dancing are like... We climb up a small slope to reach the lovely old Hotel Salegg and then enter the woods.

It's lovely and cool in here, but not dark & dismal like the pine forests back home. We think it's because the lives of the people round here are so interlinked with the forests. They walk in them, pick mushrooms and berries in them and harvest a few trees to satisfy their building requirements. Taking down a few trees every year manages the woodland, allowing light in, so that other plants can grow too. In the UK, pinewoods are usually just treated as cash crops and, in Scotland especially, whole hills are logged to leave unsightly gashes across the hillside until the next crop starts to grow. As we walk we come across three foresters who have just felled four trees and are clipping them to the back of a small tractor in order to drag them out of the wood. They have only used a chainsaw to fell the trees, unlike all the high tech industrial processing machinery we've seen in action in the Highlands of Scotland.

After a while we reach the Largo dei Fie, a man-made lake originally dammed in order to breed fish. There are several very chic looking Italians sun bathing on the lido at the edge of the lake, along with some mad Germans swimming in the ice-cold water. We take a seat at the little cafe at the water's edge and I try to eat a giant banana split. To be fair it didn't look so big in the picture! Alistair has to assist me by eating the final third.

After our break, we follow the lake round and take a path down by a field which has excellent views of the mountains. After a while we see the large village of Vols below us and the castle of Schloss Prosels across the valley. We carry on into Vols, where school seems to have just finished, as there are lots of small children wandering about sporting huge backpacks. We wonder what on earth they need to carry to warrant such huge bags.

The village is pretty, but closed as it's lunchtime. We've noticed a lot of the villages seem to close between midday and 15:30. We press on, marvelling at the parking skills of a Porche owner who is only a cigarette paper's distance from a stone wall!

As we are about to enter another wood, a BMW brushes past me, then stops about 30 meters in front of me. The driver gets out, as does his female passenger, they then try to coax a dog out from the back seat. It doesn't seem that excited by the prospect of its walk, as it still hasn't emerged by the time we pass by.

Later on we walk past a farm called Grimm with a chained up guard dog, he gives a few cursory barks, but other than that is fine. The walking notes suggest a diversion to avoid him, but there's really no need. We holidayed in the North of Italy once before and every homestead seemed to keep a large snarling wolf. They were normally clipped to a zip-line affair, so you thought the dog only had a few meters range, but in fact they often had much more. Next to those canines, this one is an angel!

There then follows a lot of uphill walking to reach the church of St Konstantin, it also looks very pretty framed by the mountains. We are a little dismayed when the path descends very steeply by a stream as we know this can only mean one thing - a big bit of uphill and yes, it's then uphill all the way back into Seis.

As the sweat is dripping off us both, all thoughts of walking on to Kastelruth fade and we call into the local tourist office to buy tickets for the bus. There is only one other person in front of us, but he asks about a trip, agrees to purchase a trip, asks more questions about the trip, pays for the trip, then, when we think he might leave, he asks a few more questions. When we finally get served, it turns out that the next bus, in 3 minutes, is one where you cannot buy tickets in advance and can only buy them on the bus! We just make it to the Bushof in time for said bus and are whisked back to Kastelruth.

On our return, I partake of a milkshake and Alistair of an ice-cream - I'm not saying we're being treated like regulars in the ice cream shop, but Alistair gets a "cheerio" as he leaves!

Sun 9 September - Hotel Cavallino d'Oro, Kastelruth

Today is another bright and sunny day, so we decide to do option three of Inntravel's suggested walks around Kastelruth. The notes say that this option is for the experienced fell walker confident on steep ground and should only be undertaken in good weather. Well we've got the weather!

Despite having done lots of walking in Scotland, the Lake District, New Zealand and the Pyrenees, Alistair & I never get too cocky about our abilities. Walking in a bad storm in the Pyrenees & being caught in the mist in the Cairngorms has left us both with a healthy respect for mother nature. Seriously though, we know we should be fine with this walk and carry the usual bivvy bag, medical kit, warm clothing and waterproofs. We also take a good bit of water with us.

We know it's going to be a long day, so cheat and take two and three quarter hours and 400 meters in height off our journey by taking the bus to Panider Sattel. We purchased the tickets yesterday and think them good value, as for €1.50 we can travel on any local buses all day.

The first part of the walk goes up over a meadow and through the woods, where it contours round. The views are great. We walk for a while until we get to a shrine and some seats - this is Pufels Bula. We then join path 24, where in the next 1.5km we gain 506 meters in height, as we climb the Schnuristeig to the Fillne Kreuz at 2130 meters. It is a long hard climb, but we've all day, so we take it nice and easy. There are more thoughtfully placed benches on the way, which we make use of.

Alistair and I have very different techniques when it comes to climbing hills. He tends to keep the same tempo all the way up, whereas I sprint a bit, then rest and sprint up another bit. I've learnt here though, that the best way is to amble up as slowly as possible, it hurts my legs a bit, but I'm not so out of puff.

After a time the trees begin to thin out a bit and the ground gets quite rocky. The walking notes get put in my rucksack, as I need both hands to haul myself up the hill. In fact there are four sections where there is either steel cable or rope to cling onto. I don't trust this though and carry on scrambling up using all four limbs. I'm a little bit scared at this point, as the contents of my rucksack seem to keep changing my centre of balance, but there's no way I'm going down this slope! Eventually I reach the top and a wide plateau at 2130 meters, where I have great views in all directions.

There are around fifty or so other people up here, including small children and I realise we have come up the most difficult way, many of the people have come most of the way by car! Still, I bet they don't feel the sense of achievement we do, as we jostle for position to take some pictures.

We then continue following the path and reach Mount Bulacia, which at 2174 meters is our highest point today. We pass by the Hexenbanke and gradually descend to the mountain cafe at Arnica Hutte. The place is crowded, not surprisingly as it's a beautiful Sunday, but a kind German couple let us share their table. It takes an age to order, get served and pay, but we are very hungry after our climb up.

Finally we set off down to Tschonadui Hutte and Schafstall Hutte traversing over some boulder strewn terrain on the way. There are wooden walkways and steps over the worst of it, but these are still quite slippery. We decide to carry on down to Marinzenhutte and take the chairlift down to Kastelruth. This seems like a good idea, until we get on the chairlift and Alistair gets his rucksack caught in the safety apparatus. There we are dangling a fair way from the ground and he is bent at an unnatural angle. I tell him to stay still as his jiggling about is making me scared. He says he can't breath as he's so squashed, but he makes a lot of noise for someone with little breath! Luckily we make it down to Kastelruth in one piece. I tell Alistair that I am in shock after that experience and need a reviving icecream! In fact we both partake of an ice-cream to calm our nerves!

Back at the hotel, Alistair shows me his arm, which appears to sport two big bruises. I feel a bit bad that I wasn't very sympathetic earlier. Post-shower though, the "bruises" have disappeared - they turn out to be just dirt!

Even with the drama at the end, we both agree that it's been a brilliant day.

Sat 8 September - Hotel Cavallino d'Oro, Kastelruth

Today we leave Bad Dreikirchen and walk to Kastelruth, where we'll spend he next three nights. We can see, without looking at our walking notes that today will involve a lot of down (700 metres) followed by a lot of up (550 meters) as we are crossing the valley.

The first part of our walk takes us straight down the hill to the village of Barbian. The walking notes say that we use route 8a, but we only see one sign for this, the 8a seems to have been renumbered 11a. Barbian is a charming place, where even the windows of the barns are decorated with beautiful flowers. In the centre of the village is a quaint church with a leaning tower. It seems a miracle the tower hasn't fallen down.

We leave the village and start to descend through and by the side of fields; managing to escape the irrigation hoses as we go. All the while getting closer to the bottom of the valley and a busy motorway and large river. On the other side of the hill we can see Trotsburg castle, which we'll be passing by later. After a while we reach the village of Kollman, which has the most decorative pizzeria I think I've ever seen, set amongst the chequered walls of a mock castle. Finally we reach Waidbruck, where we stop for a quick coca cola. The walking notes say there are two options up to Trotsburg castle, one is on a medieval trail, the other is less picturesque, but also less steep. We decide on the medieval trail. Oh my word! The path is incredibly steep on ancient cobblestones. At the start of the holiday I was going to sub-title this blog "slippery when wet" as everything was, but now the paths seem equally slippery when dry. We eventually reach the top and immediately need to rest on one of the thoughtfully placed benches.

The route here has also been renumbered, instead of being route 2 it seems to have become route 1. The route 1 track has been taped off, so we follow a cobbled lane round, which seems to be going in the same direction. We pass by a man at a table selling tickets, then pass by a field where there are benches, beer tents and a wandering troubadour playing a guitar and mouth organ. Something is obviously going on, but we pass by and continue our climb up the hill. It's a long old climb up to the top and another thoughtfully placed bench. We sit and eat our lunch and the first thing I do is squirt cheese and tomato all over my "clean on today" walking trousers, so much for doing laundry yesterday!

After lunch we reach the village of Tagusens, another very pretty place with an old church and beautiful views of the mountains. We carry on through the village and up into a forest. Walking in the forest is a treat as it's a very hot day, but cool under the trees. We reach an isolated Gasthof and are a bit dismayed when the path starts to go downhill, as this can only mean one thing... True to form, when we join a little Tarmac road next to the Brembach stream, the road goes steeply uphill. Even the sight of an eagle overhead, with the sunlight lighting up his wings, struggles to make this toil up the hill any more enjoyable. I'm very pleased when it starts to level out. Even more pleased when we see our first views of Kastelruth.

We easily find our hotel, as it's right by the bell tower in the square. The hotel gives us a whole heap of literature on the area, which is very thoughtful. I smile when they ask me if I have a car with me. I'd hope not to be so hot and sweaty if I had! After checking in, we shower and have a walk about. We find ice cream for the first time in a week and can confirm Italian ice-cream is still very good!

Nearly all the places where we're staying have two names, the Italian name for Kastelruth is Castelrotto, so we nickname the place Castle-rude-not-to!