Walk along the Adige

After we visited the ancient Roman ruins, we took a (long) walk along the bike/pedestrian path along the Adige River. (Luckily, this walk took us to a park, where the girls had some fun, since we then turned around went back to a restaurant just up the street from the Roman ruins.)

The walk was very nice. It sprinkled at the beginning (which meant Maya got to use her umbrella, which made her happy). The girls loved that the funicular went right over their heads while we walked. There are great views along the Adige of the city and the surrounding hills, including Doss Trento, which includes a large circular monument to Cesare Battisti. This fellow has figured prominently in our activities for the past couple of weeks, so I've looked him up. He was born in 1875 in Trento as an Italian-speaking Austrian citizen (since Trento was part of Austro-Hungarian Empire at the time). He was a representative to the Austrian government in Vienna until the first world war, when he joined the Italian Army to fight against the Austro-Hungarian Army. He was, however, captured by the Austrian Army. He was imprisoned in the Castello del Buonconsiglio (remember... the castle adjacent to Maya's school?) before quickly being executed. My understanding is that the way in which this execution was handled reflected very poorly on the Austrians and did them no favors in garnering support. Now, clearly, the area is part of Italy, and Cesare Battisti is considered a hero all over Italy.  And there's your history lesson for the day.

Now, back to Tim's photos. They're pretty. Some are magnificent. The sun was setting behind the mountains as we walked back to dinner, so I guess it was difficult for him to choose just a few favorites. I guess he would say that you should consider yourself lucky.

Tridentum

On Saturday, Tim took Cora to the park in the morning while Maya did her homework. He swears he wasn't going to slingshot her out of the park.

After Cora had a nap and homework was all finished, we headed out together to check out some Roman ruins hidden away underneath a square in the center of the city. We've walked past the entrance to this place dozens of times (which is a kind of nondescript staircase into the ground on the side of Piazza Cesare Battisti), but we've never gone in. It was fascinating. Buried under 1500 years' worth of buildings and dirt, there are well preserved pieces of the original city (called Tridentum) founded¹ established here by the Romans around the year 50 BC. We learned about how the city's residents lived, what the roads looked like, where the city walls and gates were (even relative to the modern streets), how their homes were heated (and plumbed!), and more. There was a decently long stretch of intact original wall, and a decently long stretch of intact street (complete with discernible cart wheel ruts). We have a nice map and list of even more sites to check out around the area.

Below are Tim's photos, which include photos of the kids frolicking (in a controlled fashion) among these ancient ruins.

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1 Maya insists that "founded" is not a real word, and we've agreed that I should use "established" instead. I've tried to explain about found being both the past tense of "find" and the present tense of yet a different word, but I've only confused her. She keeps asking (sarcastically), "Was the city already here when they found it?" I shall concede that English has failed us here and use "established" instead.