A picture I took in my previous home. A bunch of yellow roses, grown nearby the house wall (it was an old-style house with walls made by giant rocks). I like flowers, and roses in particular: beside the classical red roses, there are lots of other colours which are very beautiful too.

the beautiful mountainous landscape you can see is located in Austria, nearby the small village of Zurs. We climbed up by feet from the town center, up to over 1000m of height and was amazing view… marvellous flowers and small cristalline water flows, and a panoramic view of the surrounding without equals.

And they are really amazing… below a more detailed picture.

It seems that those waterfalls were famed already at Dante’s times. The “Supreme Poet” was so astonished hearing the powerful noise of the Acquacheta waterfalls that he compared it to the infernal river “Flegetonte” in his famous artwork “Divine Comedy”.

The way was continuing over the waterfalls, but having only one day at our disposal (and we didn’t started early), we decided to go back. Before departing from that wonderful place though, we discovered a really nice place just below the waterfall: a sort of giant pool with a real crystaline water, that was really inviting!

Judge for yourself… doesn’t it look like one of those typical tropical waterfall you can see in the jungles? those that often appear in movies or commercial spots? incredible, really.

The last picture, taken from below (the pool above)… the beeches’ lush green is really shining over the background, and you can almost feel better only looking at that picture. Really a place to visit, if you need to relax and stay away from the daily routine. Guaranteed!

If you have more time at your disposal, I suggest you go on and take a longer trip, since the Acquacheta Waterfalls are just a part of the huge National Park of Foreste Casentinesi , in which there’s plenty of neat places to visit !

Below instead there’s one of the town main gates. The town is all surrounded by walls indeed. That tower has even a working clock! Note also the main gate grid … maybe once there was even a castle drawbridge!

But what is really amazing, are the buildings themselves! Everywhere there are pastel colours, flowers hanging out from terraces and in the streets, nearby benches. Below you can see the main square:

And those other houses below, aren’t they beautiful? you can also spot another small well hidden well behind those flowers…

And this angle is something magic! it seems that the time never passed… we found yet another well (or water pump), a tower in the background and of course the classic green present in all the german towns.

The last picture is probably the most curious: it is a sort of resume, painted on a the wall of a townhouse, of Gegenbach’s past history, with some dates…. the only thing I was able to understand for sure was the great fire in 1689 that burned most of the town, which was later rebuild in the year 1700. They rebuilt it really well!

The above photo is of a typical Austrian/ Bavarian balcony. Have you ever seen anything more beautiful?? when I think about the miserable state of the balconies in my building… gray/black

But here in Austria the norm is to have flowers everywhere! and I mean everywhere, in the garden, on the balcony, and also in the house in what they call a “WinterGarten” which is a winter garden.

Strolling through any of these towns is like finding yourself immersed in a fairytale. Little wooden houses, with abundance of flowers and at your back are the stupendous mountaintops that are still covered in snow. Isn’t it like being in the Heidi cartoon, there’s little missing!