As I begin my last morning in Merano I find myself lying in bed in a 12th century castle called Castel Rundegg.  (meaning "rounded corner")  It is nearly 7 in the morning now and I intend to be on the road by 8:30 at the latest.  I actually find this journal entry to be a tad bit challenging as not a whole hell of a lot happened yesterday, but I'll give it a shot anyway. 

Like today, yesterday I woke at nearly the same time, around 7'ish.  As you may or may not recall, I was at the Hotel Tivoli here in Merano as well.  I slept like a baby I thought as I crawled out of the bed.  It was one of the more comfortable beds I have been in in awhile.   After showering, I had my typical breakfast of a cappuccino, some cereal, meats, cheeses and breads.  There I sat, making little sandwiches if you will out of the rolls and meat and cheese.  Mrs. Defrancheschi was busy walking about, making sure everyone was happy.  She is a very pleasant woman I must say.  She, as well as her husband always call me "Mr. Hall" which gets tiring after awhile.  I want to tell them to just call me Tom, but then I figure what the heck.  So, with breakfast out of the way, I went up and grabbed the few things I had brought from the car to the room down to the lobby.  After bringing my car from the lot up the steep brick-lined road to the hotel, I approached Mr. Defrancheschi to say farewell.  I asked if I owed him anything, for the phone, or for the cigar or anything else for a matter of fact.  He said no, all was fine.  Then he asked me to wait a moment and when he returned, he had a bottle of wine from his vineyard for me.  It was quite nice I must say.  I drove away from there thinking how nice of a guy he and his wife are.  I'd highly recommend Hotel Tivoli to anyone. 

I had a couple of errands on my agenda before arriving at the hotel for the day.  I wanted to go back to a building I had used the toilet in on Saturday to see if I had left my walkman there.  As I drove the streets of this small town, I couldn't help but to think how familiar the streets had become to me.  I found a small lot near the town center, which in an hour or so would have cars stacking up to get in as parking in Merano can be a chore.  Once parked, I found the swim center but did not find the walkman.   Then I walked the streets of Merano for maybe half an hour to see if anything in the windows might make a nice souvenir.  I saw nothing I liked and decided to move on to the next errand.  The Palace Hotel.  I think the only 5-Star hotel in Merano, I was going to go in and see a Mr. Fuchs, the director.  I wanted to "peddle" my wares, being my panoramas of course.  The young boy at the desk was very impressed with my panoramas as I had opened my laptop for him.  But, I discovered, Mr. Fuchs was nowhere to be found.  Instead, he took me to the office of what must of been the marketing lady.  She was anything but nice, telling me she had not time for such things, and she knew they were available.  As I left, feeling a little bit dejected, I once again had confirmed that the larger and more elegant the place, the more hoops you must go through to get anywhere.  I left there and tried one more hotel and got the exact same result.  Oh well I thought, it must be meant to be. 

I arrived at Castel Rundegg shortly after 12:30 in the afternoon.  I was greeted by Mrs. Castelforte, a most lovely lady.  In her best attempt to speak English, she told me that her husband was in Rome for a funeral and would not be back until very late.  Too bad I thought, as he is a most interesting character.  Anyway, I was shown to my room, and as last year, it was a very nice, simple room located above the downstairs spa facilities and overlooked the outside atrium.  (as opposed to an indoor atrium?  hmmmmmm?)  Anyway, to continue, I decided to spend some time on my web site dental project. 

Sorry, your browser doesn't support Java(tm). I had looked at my visa statement on-line and it was more than twice what I thought it would be.  I called the company, verified some things, and then paid off the balance.  I am intent on going home with no debt on this trip, if I can.  After spending a couple of hours on the web site, and going swimming in the fantastic pool, I decided to go for a walk into the village for a last time, seeing if I could get any nice pictures.  I walked for maybe an hour, took one or two shots, but that was it. 

When I returned to the hotel, I worked some more and then went down to take a panorama of the dining room which was now decorated for dinner.  It looked lovely I must say.  Mrs. Castelforte looked on as I set up my equipment.  She was quite pleased with the result.  When finished, I showered and changed into something more appropriate for dinner.  The dinner was fantastic, as I had expected.  I told the waiter, Sorry, your browser doesn't support Java(tm). who understood English, that after my last trip, if anyone asked if I ate well during my travels, I'd pull up the pictures on my site from last years dinner at the very same table at which I now sat.  He smiled and I am sure conveyed to the chef I'd be photographing the dinner.  So, course after course came out.  First the salad, then the pasta, then crawfish minus the avocado as per my request, the "kabob" of meat followed by a bowl of fruit with sherbet.  I wasn't disappointed.  After dinner, I had a cigar in the courtyard listening to David Gray on my $2,500 dollar "walkman".  ( I reference my laptop of course)  After which, I crawled into bed and went to sleep. 

Now, after getting my things together, I will have breakfast and post this journal entry to the internet.  I am going to go to Bolzano today and see the famous "Ice-Man" who was found high in the mountains some years ago, apparently very, very old.  Then, it is on to the small village of Castelrotto where I will spend two nights.  The first, tonight that is, will be with an Italian wood carver and his wife and son.  I understand I will be sleeping on the couch, which is ok with me.  So until next time, I will say take care and thanks for following along. 

PS.  Did I mention that most Italians up here speak German and not Italain?  Apparently, this was part of the Austrian Empire, thus the German influence.  Just thought you'd like to know...

PSS.  Would you believe I arrived in Castellrotto after a nice afternoon in Bolzano and the beautiful 4-Star Hotel Cavalino D'Oro had one room available for me, and check out the view from my room - click here...