Tiles / Tils – Day 62 on the way.

I have had wifi hassles and so this blog has fallen behind again.  I will update as soon as possible.  I am now heading into Bolzano.

It was a bit of a marathon day today, due to accommodation availability. I ended up using the train to help me as time was marching along faster than I was and I wanted to spend time in Bressanone / Brixen, before heading another three kilometres to my Gasthaus.

The path is still heading generally downhill, though the day ended with a VERY steep up hill to the village of Tils.  It was hard at the end of the day having to plod up to the village, past the church of St Cyrillus / San Cirrilo.  This church was documented as far back as 1283, though it is thought that is was built on a pagan site.  It was a lovely place, with a modern statue of Thomas, servant of Heinrich Volls near the entrance.   In 1334 he arranged for bread and cheese to be distributed to the poor on each St Lawrence Day. 

                         

 St Cyrillus - inside and out

 The statue of  of Thomas distributing his bread and cheese

 The view of Bressanone from St Cyrillus

 Going up the hill to St Cyrillus - exposed tree routes made for a tripping hazard.

 Looking back to St Cyrillus......

.....and up to Tils

I initially made good progress along the cycle path, negotiating the preparations for a festival in Campo di Tens, as I detoured to look at the Sanctuario di Maria di Trens.  It was a lovely place, and while I was there I heard the organist practising.  As I was leaving I had Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus ringing in my ears – one of my favourite pieces.  After negotiating the debris from the previous night’s celebrations, and the setting up of the days activities I then followed a path which had about a dozen signs about bees, their habitat, and honey production.  It was pretty, shady, and relatively easy to negotiate – until I got to the floor of the valley.  Here I had to follow the main road for about 500 metres – not a pleasant experience.  From there it was following the cycle path yet again, running next to the River Isarco and the Railway.

Santuario di Maria di Trens

                         

 Leaving Campo di Trens

     

   

      

The highway to negotiate (right) with no verge - and the safer route a few metres later.

Later in the day I met Alain and Veronique, wanderers from France, heading in the opposite direction from me, over the Brenner Pass ultimately to Germany.  I spent a pleasant half hour chatting to them, before heading off again.  However, it was several hours later that I decided that it was time to hop on the train.  This got me into Bressanone mid afternoon and gave me quite a slab of time to wander around and explore the city, particularly its magnificent Cathedral, before heading off on the steep climb to Tils.

 Alain and Veronique

                          

 The Cathedral in Bressanone, and ints cloister (below_)

      

Hoffburghaus, Bressanone

A pleasant, interesting, and tiring day with my night’s accommodation high above the valley floor and with magnificent views of the mountains.