Alps of Austria and Italy
From high on the German and Austrian border, Rick makes his way down to Innsbruck, the historic capital of the Hapsburgs. We slap-dance the night away in a nearby Tyrolean village before turning to feudal Italy at Reifenstein Castle. Then we're out-of-doors, zooming up rock cliffs and hiking through alpine meadows in the Italian Dolomites.
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Travel Details
Fallerschein
Easy for drivers and a special treat for those who may have been Kit Carson in a previous life, this extremely remote log-cabin village is a 4,000-foot-high, flower-speckled world of s er ene slopes and cowbells. Thunder storms roll down the valley like it's God's bowling alley, but the pint-size church on the high ground, blissfully simple in a land of Baroque, seems to promise that this huddle of houses will survive, and the river and breeze will just keep flowing. The couples sitting on benches are mostly Austrian vacationers who've rented cabins here. Many of them, appreciating the remoteness of Fallerschein, are having affairs.
Gasthof Badl
Innbrücke 4
Hall
tel. 05223/56784,
fax 05223/567-843
info@badl.at
Walderalm Farm
A cluster of three dairy farms with 70 cows that share their meadow with the clouds. The cows ramble along ridge-top lanes surrounded by cut-glass peaks. The ladies of the farms serve soup, sandwiches, and drinks (very fresh milk in the afternoon) on rough plank tables. Below you spreads the Inn River Valley and, in the distance, tourist-filled Innsbruck.
Reifenstein
For one of Europe's most intimate looks at medieval castle life, let the friendly lady of Reifenstein (Frau Blanc) show you around her wonderfully preserved castle. She leads tours on the hour, in Italian and German, squeezing in whatever English she can (tel. 0472-765-879).
Updated for 2010.