Italia!
Perhaps I have mentioned a few thousand times…I LOVE ITALY. 🙂 I love Italian people, who exude such a magical blend of passion and lightheartedness. And then there’s the food. And the wine. And the coffee. And the climbing…. I love Italy!
My past month in Europe was all instigated by an invitation to come to the Oltre le Vette festival in Belluno, with the help of Versante Sud, the Italian publisher of High Infatuation (though it is called Tra Vento E Vertigine in Italian, since apparently “infatuation” is either not a word or doesn’t mean the same thing in Italian–which given my feelings about Italy, is quite frankly astonishing). Naturally I jumped at any opportunity to visit Italy, and to make a trip to Europe!
In the end, I spent September in France and Switzerland, and traveled to Belluno on my final day in Europe to be a part of the festival. And it was an unforgettable month, filled with friends, climbing and flying, the most fantastic Europe trip I’ve had so far.
Simone Favero, the art director of the festival, was kind enough to take me climbing in the morning to their wonderful local limestone cliff, perched above Belluno looking out at the beautiful Dolomite peaks in all directions.
The view from that crag alone is worth traveling to Italy.
I was also enthralled by the perfect fall weather, beautiful limestone sprinkled with interesting vertical slots, Simone’s friends, and the enjoyable movement on the routes we climbed.
It was a huge treat, especially after I had been singlemindedly base jumping for two weeks solid, and was very ready to climb up some rock!
I was lucky enough to attend Erik Svab’s presentation about his years of climbing in the Dolomites and the Tres Cimas.
Though I couldn’t understand anything he was saying in Italian, the pictures were fantastic….and then a few hours later, he translated for my presentation at the end of the festival. Erik also gave me a copy of his new guidebook to the Dolomites, in English 🙂
So I know what I’m doing next summer…
Thank you so much to Simone and to the Otre le Vette festival for inviting me, and hosting me in Belluno!
Ciao!
oh yeah, I spent a few years living in Lecco so know what you are talking about. Looking forward to returning one day, but in the mean time it’s great to hear of other people sharing the love..