Weekend Travel: "Via Ferrata" in the Dolomites

There are many times when history and tourism make a good parternship. For those so inclined, travelling somewhere to visit important historical sites can be a rewarding experience.

In Europe, for example, people often explore former battle sites from the First and Second World Wars.

One destination that is not talked about often is the summit zone of the Dolomite Mountains on the border between Italy and Austria, the scene of fierce fighting during the First World War. Writer Ernest Hemingway was wounded in this area while serving as an ambulance driver during that period. Erwin Rommel, who later rose to the rank of field marshal with the German army in WWII, was a decorated infantryman in these mountains during the first world conflict.

The Italian army and the Austrian army both built supply lines to the troops holding positions high in the peaks. They created fixed climbing routes with iron cables and ropes to lift gear up the mountains. These routes became known as the "Via Ferrata" or "Iron Way." Today, climbers can use these cables to explore the summits and visit the high-altitude battle sites and fortifications.

Smithsonian Magazine offers an up-close look that will appeal to history buffs. Writer Matt Mossman explored the tunnels and peaks in the mountains above Cortina D'Ampezzo to see what it was like. Joe Wilcox also offers a photographic slide show.

Photo of the Dolomites (above) is courtesy of Klaus Sandrini. Many thanks.

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Ottawa rain and a storyteller from the past

It's a rainy evening in Ottawa. Umbrellas have appeared on the sidewalks and the historic buildings look stained because the stones are wet.
The figures on the monuments shine in the gathering darkness.

This June evening brings back memories of a short story written by Ernest Hemingway in the 1920s. He called it "Cat in the Rain," and the beginning of it went like this:

"There were only two Americans stopping at the hotel. They did not know any of the people they passed on the stairs on their way to and from their room. Their room was on the second floor facing the sea. It also faced the public garden and the war monument. There were big palms and green branches in the public garden. In the good weather there was always an artist with his easel. Artists liked the way the palms grow and the the bright colors of the hotels facing the gardens and the sea. Italians came a long way off to look up at the war monument. It was made of bronze and glistened in the rain. It was raining. The rain dripped from the palm trees. Water stood in pools on the gravel paths. The sea broke in a long line in the rain and slipped back down the beach to come up and break again in a long line in the rain. The motorcars were gone from the square by the war monument. Across the square in the doorway of the cafe' a waiter stood looking out at the empty square.

"The American wife stood at the window looking out. Outside right under their window a cat was crouched under one of the dripping green tables. The cat was trying to make herself so compact that she would not be dripped on.

" 'I'm going down and get that kitty,' the American wife said."

The story is actually a poignant study of the relationship between the woman and her husband, but the passage about the rain seems somehow appropriate for this night in Ottawa. No sea, of course, but the Gatineau hills and the monuments evoke a certain mood in the rain.

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For related posts on E.H., see "Hemingway lives on in Cuba"

More Hemingway material...did he deplete valuable fish stocks?

A very strange question. What's this all about?

In the New York Times' weekly Book Review, Paul Greenberg examines the writer's passion for fishing, particularly for catching big fish like marlin and bluefin tuna. Nothing unusual about this; we've heard this before.

But here's the surprise: Greenberg seriously wonders whether Hemingway's hobby may have been responsible for declining fish stocks today.

The idea is not as far-fetched as it seems at first glance.

By ingenious caclulation based on photographs and historical data, Greenberg figures that Hemingway alone may have caught more than 500 marlin during his years in Cuba.

These fish, you see, never lived to reproduce; and therein lies the tale.

It's an intriguing essay, an environmental perspective with an underlying fondness for the man known as "Papa."

(Illustration is from the US Fish and Wildlife Service)

Hemingway lives on in Cuba

If you like good travel stories, if you’re interested in Cuba and if you happen to be a fan of Ernest Hemingway, you should read the article in the latest issue of Smithsonian Magazine.

Fix your favourite beverage and savour the experience.

Entitled Hemingway’s Cuba, Cuba’s Hemingway, it’s a vivid account written by his last personal assistant, who in 1960, after Fidel Castro’s communist rebels came to power, helped the novelist and his wife, Mary, reluctantly pack up and leave the country that had become so much a part of the writer’s being. Hemingway had lived on the island or maintained contacts there for thirty years.

The assistant, who was a young woman at the time, later married Hemingway’s son, Gregory.

Now, Valerie Hemingway has returned to Cuba to visit Hemingway’s farm home and his favourite places in and around Havana. She meets some of the people who knew him in their youth and discovers that, even forty-five years after his death, Hemingway is very much alive in Cuba. The people and places that inspired The Old Man and The Sea and Islands in the Stream seem to be keeping him from fading into the mists of time. His presence is palpable.

Valerie’s account is a fascinating look at an American who attained mythical status in Cuba.

And if you’re a baseball fan, there are a couple of amazing stories in this article for you, too!

Click here to read Hemingway’s Cuba, Cuba’s Hemingway. Photographs in the Smithsonian article are by Robert Wallis.

Hemingway photo in this article is a public domain picture from www.timelesshemingway.com.

If you've visited some of the Hemingway locations in Cuba, let us know what you thought of the experience. Post a comment.