Pontremoli is a nice old town in the “Lunigiana”, a zone of Tuscany. It is not far from the famous “Cinque Terre” national park, and also near many other interesting places like Lucca, Viareggio, and so on.

It is also close to where we live now, so a sunday of december we decided to take a short trip there. We arrived and the feeble winter sun was lighting the town in a wonderful way. We walked up to a hill where you can see the whole town, and someone had hang up some clothes to dry them. I decided to take a picture of it, the one you can see above.

I like the result very much. It has a sort of “old feeling” on it, typical of the 1960-70 years. Old houses, the climate of desperation and poverty after the world war, where everyone had to restart their lives from zero.

Near the border of the region “Romagna” and “Marche” you can find th town of Montegridolfo, a nice town surrounded by ancient walls that once were the defense of the local lords, the Malatesta, in their war against the Montefeltro of the town of Urbino.

As I said the village, completely renovated, is completely surrounded by walls and you can enter only from a single gate that still has an original massive wooden door. In the small town center you can find all sort of little shops that sells local products, like honeys or wines. In some restaurants you can eat on open terraces and admire the surrounding landscape, which is very romantic.

A few km away lies Saludecio, famous for his churchtowers, the towers and walls. Even here, you can find lot of local shops and seasonal markets, full of local specialities. A particular event that takes place here every year is called SalusErbe, and focuses on natural products, from herbs to plants, and local artisans.

Another great place to visit is Verucchio. Located on a top of a hill, it was once a very important strategic location for the Malatesta family.

Walking around the town you can still feel the atmosphere of those times, and the churches still keep precious treasures.

It was originally an Etruscan possession, and you can find tangible traces of its origins in the local museums.
If we can suggest you one of the best restaurants to taste the local dishes, we recommend “ Al Mastin Vecchio” which is located in the town center (you can’t miss it) and was really great!

The wonderful landscape you see in the photo below was taken from a small path nearby…

resuming our trip, more great landscapes like the mountains below were absolutely normal. We would have liked to stop behind every road turn to take pictures of those places from every possible angle!

at last, we reached Feldkirk, and I must admit that our guide book was right. The town is magnificent, rich of renovated old buildings like the one below. If only all the towns were like that!

A very funny place was a local wine-shop (photo below) , that had a giant barrel framed in the outside wall! it was a funny but at same time majestic view.

In the photo below instead you can see the Feldkirk’s Castle, not so great like the others I’ve seen in Bavary, but surely not bad either.

Of course there were plenty of interesting things to see, like churches or squares. However we wasted too much time in the morning exploring Damuls surroundings, so we had only the time to take a quick look. From what I could see, Feldkirk is a town worth checking out for sure.

Luckily we found a polite barman who was also speaking english a bit, who was able to give us some directions. In practice we had to go through the village until we found a wooden bridge, passed it we were in front of the house that was on the border of a deep wood that was climbing up on the mountains nearby.

Words aren’t enough to explain the feelings and sensations you could experience if you spent one week on “Family Huber” house!

If you like to spend quiet summer holidays, this is the place for you. Because this place is much more popular during winter, since it is located close to some good ski tracks. So in that month (July) we really had a good time, total relax with no noises or annoyances of any kind.

The farmhouse was also giving hospitality to a few chicken, 2 funny rabbits who were running like mad in the nearby fields, a few cows and a very nice black dog named “Tina”.

The property was really amazing: it wasn’t just a room, or a flat. It was a whole house for rent! Two floors with 2 bathrooms, 2 huge bedrooms, 1 dinner room, 1 kitchen and a big room that was a sort of recreation/gym place, with a ping pong table and some gymnastic apparatus.

Nearby the house, a small fountain of pure water was available for everyone to drink. Ah, the house was totally ecologic, almost entirely made of wood.

Everything for a good price of 280 euro/week. Definitely worth it!

The small village of Bizau is situated nearby a bigger one named Bezau (so it’s easy to get lost!) and they’re in the Voralberg, a region of Austria that includes a part of Constance’s Lake. The nearest biggest towns are Bregenz and Dornbirn, where you can find all the commodities, like big malls where you can find everything you need.

Of course all around the zone there are several touristic itineraries, both by feet or bycicle, that lets you explore those wonderful places.

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!