Belluno and sunset over Ponte Nelle Alpini

Today I drove to the small alpine city (about 35,000 people) of Belluno. The city is surrounded by impressive mountains and filled with all the things that make Italian towns Italian. Coincidently, their annual wood sculpture contest was under way. This meant that there were 30 artists carving 30 different large blocks of wood in random town squares and on random sidewalks all over town. The city was literally buzzing with the sound of chainsaws and chisels. It was the second day of seven so most of the works were not quite to the recognizable stage, but still, pretty fun. I had a nice lunch of bigoli al sugo d’anatra (fat spaghetti with duck sauce [which is, just to be clear, completely unrelated to the little packets of neon orange condiment that come with Chinese takeout]) and a glass of Sangiovese at a picked-at-random restaurant. The waitress told me my Italian was pretty good then promptly explained to me (in Italian) that she was going to get her boss to wait on me because he spoke some English. So...thank you, I think.

The most important thing that happened in Belluno was that I learned I couldn't hack it as a member of the paparazzi. Below you will find a picture of a park bench with a large graffiti face on the wall beside it. I took that picture the second time I passed that small and somewhat secluded park. The first time around a middle aged bearded gentleman was sitting on that bench. He was simultaneously
clutching a brown paper bag wrapped bottle and blissfully singing to a pigeon. I'm fairly confident it would have made a pretty amazing photograph. I'm also pretty confident that this dude just wanted to sing to his bird/buddy in peace without some tourist snapping unauthorized photos of rehearsal. Stupid conscience. Oh well, I guess I'll stick with landscapes.

Speaking of landscapes (I'm working on my segues), I had a few hours before it got dark so I picked a mountain trail to explore. I found one with a church marked on it. The trail head was located on the edge of Ponte Nelle Alpini, a town just 5 miles up the road. So that's where I went next. The views from the little stone church were spectacular. I made sure to be back at the church to watch the sunset, then I made my way down to the car. I managed to get within a quarter mile of the car before it was completely dark. Pretty good.