We are halfway through a story that is about to turn winter in one of the most beautiful places in the world profoundly ugly.

Just like in a Cecil B. DeMille movie, we have a cast of millions, we have epic scenery, and we have made acquaintance with someone who will go on to perform a heroic act.

Unlike your typical Hollywood production, however, this movie is not going to have a happy ending—in fact, you could make the argument that it’s not over yet.

So wrap yourself up in something comfortable, grab something to drink…and when you’re ready, we’re packing up and heading to the Alps.

So for those of you just coming to the story, here’s where we’re at:

There has been, for as long as anyone can remember, some degree of “friendliness balanced with hostility” in the relationship between the Austrians, Italians, and Ladins who have been living in the Tyrol, a region of the Alps just to the east of Switzerland.

In the 1800s, a variety of national unification movements emerged, leaving Italy, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Germany in possession of various parts of the Tyrol.

For those unfamiliar with the geography, the Alps would represent a bit of trim extending all the way across the top of Italy’s “boot”; if the boot had a buckle, it would be where the Italian, Austro-Hungarian, and German borders come together in the center of the Alps.

As WWI approached, there was some question as to whether Italy would join the Central Powers (Germany, Austro-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire) or the Triple Entente (Russia, France, Britain, and eventually, the United States).

Italy broke its neutrality by signing the Treaty of London and attacking Austrian and other Central Powers forces along a 450-long offensive line stretching from Lake Garda to not quite Trieste.

In May of 1915 the Italians had 875,000 troops trying to mount an attack uphill, the goal being to emerge near Zagreb, Croatia (and cover their backsides at the same time, thus the attack on the Lake Garda region), so they could wheel north and attack into Austrian territory while simultaneously moving south along the Adriatic coast; the Austrians were defending from the peaks with roughly 300,000 troops.

Among those troops were units specially trained in mountain combat; those units recruiting from the mountain guides and hunters who lived in the mountain regions. The Austrians had in their command a legendary mountain guide-turned-hotelier named Sepp Innerkofler, who had more than 50 “first ascents” on some of the world’s toughest peaks under his belt.

For those with a memory of history, Hannibal did the same thing on a much narrower offensive front, 2200 years ago, starting from roughly Nice, France and ending up between Turin and Milan, in what is today Northern Italy–a feat he performed at great cost to his own forces.

And now, you’re caught up.

“Our vigil is ended. Our exultation begins … The cannon roars. The earth smokes … Companions, can it be true? We are fighting with arms, we are waging our war, the blood is spurting from the veins of Italy! We are the last to join this struggle and already the first are meeting with glory … The slaughter begins, the destruction begins … All these people, who yesterday thronged in the streets and squares, loudly demanding war, are full of veins, full of blood; and that blood begins to flow … We have no other value but that of our blood to be shed.”

– Gabriele D’Annunzio, April 25th, 1915

The first four of the twelve Battles of the Isonzo were fought, along that long front, between May and December of 1915. The main tactic, on both sides, was to use artillery as a way of “softening up” the opposition, after which somebody would have to run up a hill, under fire, in an attempt to dislodge someone else from their well dug-in position (which explains why controlling the high ground is so vitally important).

“The men rest for a few hours, trying to dry out. At noon, they form a line, dropping to one knee while the officers stand with sabres drawn. The regimental colours flutter freely. Silence. Then a trumpet sounds, the men bellow ‘Savoy!’[the name of the royal house] as from one throat, the band strikes up the Royal March. Carrying knapsacks that weigh 35 kilograms, the men attack up the steep slope, in the teeth of accurate fire from positions that the Italians cannot see. An officer brandishing his sabre in his right hand has to use his left hand to stop the scabbard from tripping him up. The men are too heavily laden to move quickly. Renato remembered the scene as a vision of the end of an era: ‘In a whirl of death and glory, within a few moments, the epic Garibaldian style of warfare is crushed and consigned to the shadows of history!’ The regimental music turns discordant, then fades. The officers are bowled down by machine-gun fire while the men crawl for cover on hands and knees. The battle is lost before it begins. The Italians present such a magnificent target, they are bound to fail. A second attack, a few hours later, is aborted when the bombardment falls short, hitting their own line. The afternoon peters out in another rainstorm.”

– Renato di Stolfo, describing his view of the First Battle of the Isonzo

As the Italians attacked the Austrians were basically engaged in a slow retreat into the highest mountain redoubts, destroying the rail and road infrastructure as they went.

Among the unbelievable tales of combat from those first engagements is this account of how bulls were used as a tool of assault:

“…Realizing that Korada must be captured, if at all, by dash and surprise, the Italian brigadier in charge of the attack gathered a herd of fierce bulls, which are numerous in that part of Venetia, and penned them in a hollow out of sight of the enemy, while his artillery began to bombard the hostile trenches. When the animals were wrought to a frenzy of rage and fear by the noise of the guns, they were let loose and driven up the mountain against the Austrian positions. Their charge broke through many strands of the wire entanglements, and before the last of them fell dead under the Austrian rifle fire, Italian troops with fixed bayonets had crowded through the gaps in the wires and captured the position…”

By the time the fourth battle was over the Austrian commanders’ extremely effective defense not only had the Italians stopped cold—literally—but even worse, the few miles gained in those seven months had already cost the Italians 250,000 dead or wounded soldiers.

The Austrians were losing soldiers as well—including Sepp Innerkofler.

July 3rd had found Innerkofler under attack on the Croda Rossa early in the day, and, amazingly, deer hunting later in the afternoon a couple miles away at the Alpe di Andert:

“…We start the descent at 12 and 13.50 are the Alpe di Andert. Lieutenant Gruber goes back to his position as we head towards the Kulewaldplatz, where our 6 men, they start hunting with deer starting from the so-called Bastrich. I look forward to the post until the end of the broad valley. 5 are found deer and fox-1, I will see two but failed to hit them. He fired a total of 8 shots, but unfortunately it is the prey of a single chapter. And so, as two hours and a half ago we were engaged in a manhunt, now we are dedicated to our unique pleasure to that of the deer!…”

–From Sepp Innerkofler’s diary entry, July 3rd, 1915

July 4th, however, was a bit of a different story.

Innerkofler and five members of his “flying squad”, all top climbers, were ordered to dislodge a group of Italian mountainsoldiers (Alpini) from a mountain peak. To make this happen Innerkofler’s team was required to perform a vertical ascent upon the Monte Paterno—an ascent that was actually among his resume of Alpine “first climbs”; a feat he had achieved 19 years earlier and many, many, times since.

The climb was completed by sunrise, and with the sun at their backs the Austrians began to attack with grenades and small arms and the thud of their own artillery sending shells just overhead into the Italian position. Austrian and Italian machine gun emplacements were trading fire across the ridges at each other.

There are several versions of what happens next, including an almost Wagnerian account—but the eventual outcome of each is the same: Innerkofler is killed by a rock-wielding Alpini.

The Italians, risking Austrian fire, recovered the Austrian’s body and give him a funeral with full respect, burying him on the Paternkofel.

With four of the Battles of the Isonzo down, there were still eight to go.

The next May, after an exceptionally bitter winter and spring and with more equipment, the Italians were preparing to attack, again, from north of Milan to up above Lake Garda—but the Austrians had two Armies in the mountains, who were able to drive the Italians back into their own northern plain, stopping the Fifth Battle before it ever got started.

It’s reported that the Austrians had to fall back from that newly acquired land partly because of problems running a logistics operation through the mountains…and also partly because the Russians mounted an offensive to the Austrians’ east. The cost to the Italians was substantial, however, as they were forced to commit 500,000 troops to the defense of the Lake Garda region.

In this environment, the Italians and Austrians were not limited to the use of traditional means of killing each other—in fact, rockslides and avalanches were becoming weapons of mass destruction, as this description of an action at the Col di Lana in April of 1916 indicates:

“…so the entire western margin of Col di Lana was carefully and patiently mined, an undertaking which probably took months of hard work, and several tons of high explosives were distributed in such a way as to destroy the whole side of the mountain above which the enemy was in- trenched.

The explosion that followed was terrific. The earth shook as if rocked by an earthquake, and the havoc wrought was so great that out of the 1,000 Austrians who held the position, only 164 survived.”

Just a few months later, on just one day (December 13th, a day which became known as “White Friday”) 10,000 soldiers are said to have died in avalanches; the problem being so serious that both sides had detachments of soldiers assigned specifically to the avalanche rescue mission.

This went on for months and months and months, with neither side really accomplishing anything in terms of territory gained. The Italians, however, were growing their Army, both in size and in the amount of materiel they could put in the field, until October of 1917, when either the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo or the Battle of Caporetto took place (pick your favorite name; various sources use both).

The Austrians, coming down from the buckle of our boot, mounted an attack that was so successful that the Italian 2nd Army collapsed in disorganized confusion to the south, suffering severe levels of casualties; the better organized 3rd and 4th Armies seem to have lost about 20% of their forces “coming to the rescue”.

While the Italian Army under General Cadorna had begun the battle with 1,250,000 troops, in two weeks he lost roughly 320,000 of them to death or capture, along with most of his Army’s artillery—and his own job. An additional 350,000 soldiers were reportedly wandering the countryside, for the moment unattached to any military organization.

400,000 people became refugees in those two weeks.

Eventually the Austrians had to retreat back into their own territory; some of the reason for that being related to the same problems the Italians were having maintaining supply lines through mountains, some of the reason for that being that the Austrians were losing on other fronts.

This was not the end of the fighting along the Italian-Austrian frontier, nor the end of the ethnic conflict that has peppered the region’s history, but you get the idea: no one ever really won any victories that mattered, but thousands upon thousands of people died in the effort, and hundreds of thousands more were wounded—again, all for nothing, really.

“…das Schlagwort vom lebenslangen Lernen für alle – auch für Politiker – gilt…”

(English translation: “…the slogan of lifelong learning for all – even for politicians – applies…”)

–Luis Durnwalder, Governor of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano

Now at some point in this story we have to answer the question of…what is the point of all this?

Folks, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the moral of this story is that there is no point.

More or less 400,000 soldiers died on both sides, countless more were wounded, and hundreds of thousands of people, if not millions, became refugees.

Sepp Innerkofler’s hotel was bombed as he and so many other of his friends, both Austrian and Italian, were killed up in those mountains.

And all of it for nothing.

Italy was not able to advance its national interests at all (in fact, things got much worse), and despite everything that happened back and forth over those years, Austria certainly saw no gains: in fact, thanks to this war, the Hapsburg Dynasty also went the way of “Cats” and the Ottoman Empire…closing, after a long run.

If it was my job to apply all of this to some war that my bosses were fighting…I think I’d be looking at Afghanistan, and I think I’d be looking at the place as a collection of tribal communities, rather than one big country; and I think I’d be telling my bosses that all those talking heads—and just plain folks—who think we should “defeat the Taliban” through some military campaign so that we can come home, having achieved some kind of ultimate victory, need to understand that you will never defeat anything up in the mountains simply be throwing a bunch of people and equipment at the problems.

Instead, you’re going to have to consider whether it’s possible to help the Afghans create something like what is happening in the Tyrol today, where protections for the various tribal and ethnic groups could be laid out in a framework that reassures Pashtuns, Persians, and Turcoman alike that they have a place in a community of interdependent communities.

This has been a long and, at times, rather depressing, look at who we are as people, and I wanted to end on a postscript that is a bit happier…and it all comes back to Sepp Innerkofler.

Despite the fact that his hotel was bombed, and he was killed, the family carried on, as did the strength of his reputation…which is why you can, even to this very day, hike the Sepp Innerkofler Höhenweg (Ridgeway, in English), and why, should you find yourself a bit tired from the hike, you can stay at Sepp’s original Hotel Dolomitenhof, rebuilt since the war, where the legacy also continues, as Innerkofler Katharina recently noted in an email exchange we had:

“…of course we are proud of our grand-grand pa. We´ve a little museum in our hotel, where we show his climbing successes and explain his destiny.”

We have another one of those “amazing history” stories for you today—and this one’s a real doozy.

We’re going to spend the better part of four years in the Italian Alps (or, to be more accurate, what was intended to be the Italian Alps), and by the time we’re done, nearly 400,000 soldiers will have been killed—and 60,000 of those will have died as a result of avalanches that were set by one side or the other.

In the middle of the story: a mountaineer and soldier who was so highly regarded that even those who fought against him accorded him the highest honors they could muster, creating a legend that lives on to this very day.

And even though a young Captain Erwin Rommel fought in these battles…it’s not him.

Oh, by the way: did I mention that there are also some handy object lessons for anyone who might be thinking about fighting a war in Afghanistan?

Well, there are, Gentle Reader, so follow along, and let’s all learn something today.

“Coming back from a long weekend in the desert, traffic is lousy. Next to the highway, an electric billboard proclaims ONLY 24 SUNSETS UNTIL CHRISTMAS and I am stuck beside it long enough to watch it change to 23—get ‘em while they’re hot, apocalypse coming soon, reserve your sunsets now while supplies last.”

–Gabriel Wrye, “Straight Time”

Let’s begin the setup for this story by checking out some prime European real estate:

Italy, as you know, is that “boot” protruding into the Mediterranean—and if the top of the boot had really cool trim and a big buckle, the trim would run from Nice, France (formerly Nice, Italy), on the west, touching Innsbruck and Salzburg, Austria, and then past Bratislava, Slovakia and on into the Hungarian plain. The trim would also veer south, and that portion of our metaphorical “carnival decoration” would encompass Ljubljana, Slovenia (which is about 100 miles south of Salzburg), eventually rolling out into the suburbs of Zagreb, Croatia.

Other notable nearby cities include Marseilles, Grenoble, every city in Switzerland, Strasbourg, Munich, Venice, Bologna, Milan, Turin, and Genoa, all of which are 100 miles or less from the boot’s appliqué.

This is the Alps, and, in 1910, France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire all have borders that snake through the area. The last three were all relatively new countries, none having gone more than 50 years since their most recent versions of “unification”—and that buckle we spoke of earlier? That would be roughly where the Swiss, Austrian, and Italian borders meet today, near the Stelvio Pass…which is part of an area known as the Tyrol.

Switzerland’s Matterhorn (part of the Pennine Alps) is one of numerous mountains that are all above 10,000 feet over on the west side of the region; the highest peak of the equally spectacular Tre Cime di Lavaredo (known in German as the “Drei Zinnen”) is located about 10,000 feet up in the air, a couple of hundred miles or so to the east in the Dolomite Range.

Just like in my part of the world (Washington’s Cascade Mountains) you can get a lot of snow up there, and the combination of extreme snow and weather, high altitudes, and nearly vertical climbs created, by necessity, residents with unique mountaineering skills (the techniques that led to the use of pitons, carabiners, and rope ascents and descents were all developed here)…skills that became quite valuable to the military authorities in those five countries.

By the start of the 20th Century, troops like the Italian Alpini (who, to this day, still serve in the Italian Army), the French Chasseurs Alpines (who are also still serving and have a recruiting pitch that’s way past “Be All You Can Be”), the Austrian Landesschützen (who also have a modern presence in today’s Austrian Armed Forces as the 6th Jägerbrigade and the Österreichs Gebirgsbrigade, mountain infantry and “mountain combat engineers”, respectively), and the “Standschutzen“, who were essentially the Austrian military’s Alpine “farm team”, were all stood up to protect the various national interests that were present in the mountains.

All of the armies and militias involved had access to the best hunters and mountain guides that could be found—and since smuggling and poaching was part of mountain life, a lot of people knew a lot of paths, knew how to bag game with the fewest shots possible—and knew how to use those skills while keeping out of sight of the flatlanders and tourists—and “revenooers”—who might be venturing into the neighborhood.

Among all those mountain dwellers, perhaps the most skilled of the hunters and guides was Sepp Innerkofler. As the new century began, he had built his decade-old guide business into a hotel business—presumably learning better “customer service” that that practiced by his equally famous uncle Michael, who would apparently leave customers on ledges to wait for him to finish a climb if they couldn’t keep up. (Michael died in 1888, the victim of an ice bridge collapse.)

One measure of Sepp’s skill: he had to his credit the “first ascent” up more than 50 of the most difficult peaks in the Alps—which wasn’t that easy, considering that Michael had something like 10 times that number under his belt.

”…only a few of the hundreds of walkers who leave the Longéres pass for the Lavaredo pass every day in summer and autumn realise [sic] that they are moving in an environment which was made sacred by events in the Great War…”

–Tito and Camillo Berti, “Guerra in Ampezzo e in Cadore”

I could tell you an entire additional story about Italy and the relationship with Austria (and later Austro-Hungary, both ruled by the Hapsburg Dynasty), but what you need to know today is that over the centuries there had been a long-simmering conflict between the Italians and the Austrians (and the Ladins, a third ethnic group that inhabits the Tyrol).

At the time of the American Civil War Austria’s territory extended a bit south of the Alps; and part of the beginning of Italian unification history (the “Risorgimento”) was the effort to reduce Austrian influence in the north of today’s Italy and in the Italian Tyrol.

As Europe was stumbling its way into World War I, much of Italy’s population wanted to stay neutral (which, for the moment, was official Government policy), and some did not, seeking, instead, an alliance between Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Opposing the Empire was the Rebel Alliance…no, wait, that was “Star Wars”.

The actual opponents, Russia, France, and Great Britain, were known as the “Triple Entente”, which was the side the United States later joined. Germany eventually declared war against everyone in Europe, except the “neutral” countries and the other “Central Powers” (Austro-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire—which, like the show “Cats”, was just about to close after a very successful 600-year run), who they joined.

By the time it was all over, more than 50 declarations of war were issued by the various combatant nations.

It’s now 1915, and despite the fact that Italian policy tilts toward neutrality, Sepp Innerkofler has been seeing a lot of new activity in his neighborhood…and the alp-glow notwithstanding, he was pretty sure that it wasn’t the mythical King Laurin.

You cannot sustain an army in the mountains without a lot of infrastructure in place, especially a large one, and what Innerkofler was seeing was indeed the beginning of Italian military preparations—preparations that were being countered, as best as possible, by the Austrian military:

“The Italian Alpinis, as well as their Austrian counterparts…occupied every hill and mountain top and began to carve whole cities out of the rocks and even drilled tunnels and living quarters deep into the ice of glaciers like the Marmolada. Guns were dragged by hundreds of troops on Mountains up to 3 890 m (12,760 feet) high. Streets, cable cars, mountain railways and walkways through the steepest of walls were built.”

–From the article “Tyrol”, courtesy of the Embassy of Austria

And as it turns out, the Italians were going to need every bit of army they could get…because for a piece of the action, including some Alpen territories, the Italians had agreed, in the until now secret Treaty of London, to fight on the side of the Triple Entente powers—but in order to win the Tyrol…well, they were going to have to win the Tyrol; a task which will require the Italian Army to fight their way through either the Dolomites, on the one side, or the Julian Alps on the other…or both.

Hannibal had accomplished a similar task on the eastern side of the Alps—2200 years before—but to do it he left a huge portion of his Carthaginian forces dead in those mountains; victims of both the ancient angry mountain soldiers (the forebears of the same mountain folk Innerkofler lived among in 1915) and the brutal winter conditions.

The Italian commander, General Luigi Cadorna, had 875,000 troops at his disposal on May 23, 1915 (the day the Italians declared an end to their neutrality); against him the Austrians could only field about 300,000 troops—but many of those troops were natives defending their own real estate…and for the moment, they held the strategic real estate on the tops of the mountains.

Remember the description we gave in the beginning about the boot’s appliqué?

The smart thing to do, if you’re commanding 875,000 troops trying to go north, is to get around the right edge of the fringe on that boot (the mountains are somewhat lower on that side) and get your people onto the Hungarian plain…which is nice and flat and provides lots of room to maneuver.

The problem is, if you get too committed to that plan, you may end up with Austrian troops in Milan, attacking you from the rear. To prevent such an occurrence, Cadorna attacked on an offensive line that stretched from the “buckle” of our boot, way up in the Alps, to the city of Gorizia, which is all the way over to the top and right, if you were looking at a modern Italian map—and which just happens to be on the way to the nearby Adriatic port city of Trieste.

If you then follow the route of today’s A1 and A2 highways you get to Zagreb…and that’s the way to the Hungarian Plain.

If you can succeed in advancing uphill past Lake Garda (the Lago di Garda, in Italian, and the first part of the route up to the buckle), then you can cut off the railroad from Trentino north to Innsbruck; this would prevent the Austrians from moving any troops into northern Italy.

It’s time for us to stop for today: we have a lot of story to go, this is a natural point to take a break, and, to be completely honest, 4,000 words is too much even if you’re trapped in your car on the New York Thruway with nothing but a Snuggie, a laptop, and a mobile Internet service provider.

When we come back tomorrow we’ll get to the story of what happened when Italy deployed their newly enlarged Army, which is a story that, in some ways, is still being told; additionally, the idea that there is a lesson here for those who are being tasked with executing a war strategy in Afghanistan will be explored.

Harmony and balance matter in life, so go watch some Johnny Bravo or something, clear your head of all of this, and we’ll all meet back here tomorrow for Part Two.

i could post pics of these beauties all day long…

By Dian Hasan | November 18, 2009

What would a resort stay experience be without a pool? Unthinkable for today’s travelers. They’ve come a long way, playing a central role in creating a distinctive experience and the common denominator as a social hub. Integral to a hotel’s brand identity. Here’s a glance at some of world’s most gorgeous resort pools, sharing the same traits regardless of their locale: sexy and chic!

A Tyrol, grife de moda infantil de expressão nacional, inaugura na terça-feira,
17 de novembro, a primeira loja no Rio Grande do Sul, no Shopping Iguatemi.
A marca, que surgiu na capital Paulista, em 1971, está em franca expansão,
com 26 unidades no país, atendendo mais de 1 milhão de clientes e abrindo
lojas nos pontos mais nobres das capitais brasileiras. 

LEIA MAIS NOS SITES
:: SORTIMENTOS :: http://www.sortimentos.net/?p=4797
:: GEBBEG VARIEDADES :: http://gebbeg.com.br/?p=7617
:: MODA EVENTOS :: http://www.modaeventos.com.br/?p=2419

.

New image in the coat of arms photography contest

…
Vipiteno, South Tyrol photography picture

“The Plan”

October 27th, 2009

There has been an odd lack of excitement surrounding “The Plan,” which isn’t exactly surprising. On the one hand, the show’s finale proved somewhat divisive, which could have turned some fans away from revisiting the series. On the other, there is more long term interest in a project like Caprica which could run for multiple seasons than a one-off movie, which might have fans focusing more on its impending premiere. However, I really shouldn’t fit into either of these camps, as I’ve yet to get truly excited about Caprica (although I am certainly intrigued) and I quite loved the finale. And yet, nonetheless, the DVD release of The Plan (in stores today, October 27th) snuck up on me in a way I had not anticipated, and its release seems to lack the fanfare one would expect for what will be our last time spent with this universe (or this time period in this universe).

Perhaps it is best that one goes into this one with low expectations, however. As someone who loves this show, having written an undergraduate thesis about it and spending four hours writing about the series finale into the middle of the night with no regard for my personal health, the purpose of this film should excite me. Promising to explain the Cylon plan to destroy humanity, and to detail how the individual Cylon models came to play their roles in the first two seasons of the series, one feels as if there is some really compelling material to be had here, the kind of stuff that would have me wishing I could go back and rewrite my chapter on the Cylon/Human binary all over again.

And yet, “The Plan” is a qualified failure, raising some intriguing issues but in an indulgent fashion that in its relentless need to fill in the gaps of where this is happening relative to the show’s narrative proves more distracting than informative, more confusing than enlightening. I feel as if there is an intriguing narrative waiting to be found somewhere in this mess of a two-hour television movie, but that narrative is lost when it is so clearly segmented to fit into the series’ existing structure. While we’re busy playing the game of “spot which footage was from the show and which was shot new for the movie,” there’s something interesting going on here that’s just not coming through as clearly as it needed to.

In individual moments, this feels like Battlestar Galactica – as a whole, it feels like a DVD extra where you can click a button and see what the Cylons are busy plotting at that particular time, something which would be more interesting if they hadn’t tried to turn it into a motion picture event.

If this were the story of a leader who, after plans go awry, finds himself ill-equipped to finish the job but hell-bent on doing it, only to have his soldiers prove themselves disloyal to the cause as they are one by one picked off by emotional commitments which weren’t part of their strategy, I think this could be a legitimately compelling narrative. Yes, the theme that love lives on beyond death is cheesy and simple, but there is something about Dean Stockwell as a leader of men and women that makes this idea compelling on the surface. As individual stories, the journeys of Simon (who has a family he is unwilling to let die at his own hands) or Six (who fails to complete her task when she begins to feel sympathy for Baltar as all Sixes eventually do) or Boomer (whose duelling instincts tear her apart to the point of overwhelming any sense of autonomy she had) are all kind of interesting, and with Cavil at the heart of the storyline there is something really interesting about those individual tales.

However, unfortunate, this isn’t the story of those people: it’s being sold as the story of how the Cylons blew up Earth and how they plotted against it, and when you start slotting these stories into the show’s existing narrative through either retconning (inventing the character of Simon’s wife to work as a knuckledragger) or through placing new scenes within existing storylines (Six’s feelings towards Baltar, the various scenes of Boomer telling Cavil about her troubles) things become more complicated than they need to be. While Boomer’s story was interesting, we already saw the exact same type of storyline happen in the show itself, and seeing the other side told us nothing new outside of the existence of a little wooden elephant as a sort of trigger. Knowing that Six had feelings for Baltar is highly irrelevant to anything we might want to know about Cylon culture, and Simon’s story tries to duplicate the realizations of Cylon identity that the fourth season just about played out with a character we’ve never met before, and one given basically no storyline development. If they were parts of some other series that didn’t actually have anything to do with Battlestar Galactica, they would have been intriguing, but the sense that we’ve already been down those roads couldn’t help but pervade the entire film.

I know what Jane Espenson and Edwards James Olmos were going for her, a film that is equal parts thematic rumination and fan service designed to “say goodbye” to the show for its cast, crew and fans. And everyone now and then, you get a moment that feels particularly interesting that kind of makes the project worthwhile. However, none of those moments felt like they were actually part of any broader plan, and none of them shed any light on what was really happening behind the scenes during these attacks. I loved a scene like Tricia Helfer’s southern-drawl Six listing off to a drunk Cavil the various ways the others had all failed him as he reached out desperately for his bottle, the kind of comedy that Espenson does well and which Helfer and Stockwell both nailed. But, in the end, what did that add to our understanding of these Cylons and their plan? Something like Cavil stabbing the young orphan boy was also legitimately chilling, but when the story meandered its way through the film without ever amounting to anything (we only got a name out of the kid) did it really accomplish much beyond being an intriguing setpiece? On that point, did the entire movie accomplish much of anything?

I don’t think it’s so simple as to suggest that knowing how it ends somehow ruins it. The film didn’t need suspense to work, it needed something that was legitimately intriguing or exciting. The one storyline that seemed like it couldn’t go wrong, showing Anders in the early days of the Resistance, played out in such a rote fashion that it never amounted to anything. Of the Final Five, he was the only one who was not on board Galactica or in the fleet when the attacks happened, so I was expecting for his journey to be particularly enlightening. Instead, it started with every war cliche in the book, and then turned into a game of Caprica Cavil attempting to awaken the Cylon in Anders while in the process awakening the human in himself. I think there was something to be had there, the idea that when the Cavils eventually meet aboard Galactica (as we saw at the beginning and end of the movie) they are at two fundamentally different places in terms of their opinion of the attack on humanity. However, because so much of what happens in between needs to navigate its way towards narrative guideposts in the form of events that transpired during the first and second seasons, we never really get to play out their differences except for in the prologue/epilogue, which doesn’t provide as much commentary on that subject as I would have liked.

There is no question that the film leans on Dean Stockwell in a major way, placing Cavil in the sort of leadership role that came to the forefront in the fourth season, once the uprising of Boomer and Caprica and the rise of D’Anna were over and done with. I can’t help but imagine how much more interesting the film could have been if we had seen something more along the lines of “Downloaded” (where we see the Cylons acting entirely independent of humans) as opposed to this mismatch of new and old material. The idea that Cavil ended up in the fleet with this ragtag group of secret agents, separated from their Cylon commanders and unable to mount an offense on their own, is actually really interesting, but the potential never feels realized. The almost slavish attention to detail, fitting in the details on the events the Cylons are undertaking, feels like an undercooked attempt to appeal to non-fans to fill in the gaps, or to play to those with poor memories of the events unfolding – however, by spending so much of its time doing our work for us, it missed out on living up to the promise the project had.

The retconning, and the focus on all sorts of Galactica events, also points out a whole bunch of logistical concerns. How, precisely, did so many Cylons cycle their way in and out of the chapel aboard Galactica without anybody seeing it – not only would the chapel be likely busier than they depicted it, considering how many people had died and all, but in particular Doral and Leoben would have been searched for and not able to move as easily as the show made it seem. That there could be two Sixes who, even with different hair colours, looked so alike wandering about the ship in the middle of intense paranoia is similarly unbelievable, and these types of mental leaps could have been avoided if they had spent less time reminding us of those particular realities. If they had been less worried about showing us what we know, we would have been less reminded of how they were so conveniently slotting these events in where they wouldn’t logically fit. They would always run into these issues with this type of project, but elements of the film’s construction actually made them more apparent instead of hiding them.

The whole film has this sense of “tell me something I don’t know.” We know that Grace Park really grew into the role of Boomer/Athena, and she acquits herself well here. Similarly, we knew Tricia Helfer grew leaps and bounds during the second season, so her addition of nuance to some early Six appearances is certainly helpful. Michael Trucco is given some pretty rote military fare, at the end of the day, but he does pretty well with it. The two actors given more to work with, Rick Worthy as Simon and Dean Stockwell as Cavil, have opposite problems. Stockwell is great in the role, as usual, but there’s a sense of diminishing returns: his treatment of all of the various Cylons was more or less the same, and I much prefer the more philosophical Cavil (who, with Anders, we saw less of) than the diabolical one from the fourth season (who was the one aboard Galactica). As for Worthy, he was by far the most underwritten of the Cylons (in a tense competition with Doral) in the original series so it was good to see him get a chance to give some shades to Simon. Unfortunately, it was too little too late, as outside of confirming he likes medicine everything else felt too new to really connect with the show as a whole. It’s one thing for things to be too close to the show’s narrative, but it’s another for it to feel forced and contrived out of thin air.

I don’t entirely know where all of this went wrong, but something about the form and content just don’t match up here. If this was sold as a webisode series, where we saw Simon and Anders’ individual stories in, say, 3 8-minute episodes each, and then spent a webisode or two with Leoben, Six, Boomer, etc., I think I’d be on board. But when you start to sell it as something entirely different, you run into problems. It toys with a major presence for the Final Five, but then see Rekha Sharma for a few minutes in the beginning and briefly at the end, and Kate Vernon makes only a quick opening appearance as Ellen Tigh before never re-entering the narrative. If the film wasn’t going to present a larger scale, if it was going to tell a loosely connected set of alternate perspectives on previous events that never quite gels as a whole, there were other ways to present this material that wouldn’t create expectation. The idea of spending more time in this universe is compelling, but there are ways to do it and ways not to do it. The basic idea behind the film was fine, but the script that has been constructed isn’t actually a television movie, and what it accomplishes is far from the potential of such a project with more care put behind it.

What we learn from “The Plan” is that, once the Cylons went from a world-destroying power to a group of individuals outnumbered in the fleet, their programming proved incapable of holding them back from emotions of love and empathy, driving each of them in turn to relate to their human side (however false it may have been) to the point where they were closer to their creators in their current state (walking amongst the humans believing themselves to be one of them). But by focusing more on events aboard Galactica than on their creators, and by spending more time placing these storylines into the broader narrative than actually crafting one of its own, the film falls off the rails. I didn’t need it to be surprising or suspenseful, or to fundamentally change my perspective on this universe; however, what I did need was for it to feel worthy of the series’ namesake, and that is something I do not believe it accomplished.

Cultural Observations

• I remember a time when a scene like Simon’s wife standing in a room paranoid about her husband being called out as a Cylon for his suicide would have been so fun to watch, since we know that Tyrol and Tigh are both Cylons. However, the fourth season really did play that out, so it felt tired here.
• Disappointing to not even get a glimpse of Mary McDonnell –  a lost altercation with Roslin coming into the Chapel in search of guidance and sharing a deep conversation with Cavil would have done wonders to keep me engaged during some of the longer stretches of tedium.
• I want to make clear that I don’t think Espenson was entirely at fault here: the very premise of featuring so much old footage would have doomed this no matter what, and I am far more comfortable with her handling something less hamstrung in Caprica.
• Didn’t notice a whole lot of new score from Bear McCreary, and the fact that he hasn’t yet posted anything on his blog about the project seems to indicate it wasn’t too intensive. However, should he post something later today, that’s where it will be.
• One thing that will change when (or, if, really) SyFy airs this on television: the sexual content. The amount of nudity was actually kind of surprising to me, and the Simon/Wife sex scene (while thematically on point) was kind of over the top to be quite frank. I’m all for nudity when it feels right but some of it (the topless bartender, the scene in the showers) really didn’t work.
• One positive: this makes Razor look like a tremendous success by comparison, doesn’t it?

The Italian State is undergoing a deep federalist reform, and South Tyrol is one of the territories willing to get further in its demands for more self-government. South Tyrol is mainly a German-speaking country, although Ladin people live in some areas of the Dolomite Mountains, a section of the Eastern Alps cutting across South Tyrolean territory. The main autonomist party, the South Tyrolean People’s Party (SVP), has been governing for the last 20 years, and after the last elections has set the goal of obtaining fiscal autonomy and more powers transferred.

South Tyrol is a mountainous country at the northernmost point in Italian Republic, bordered by Austrian Tyrol to the North (hence the name), Switzerland to the West, Veneto to the South-East, Trentino to the South and Lombardy to the East. In administrative terms, it is called Autonomous Province of Bolzano-South Tyrol, and it is one of the two units comprising the Region of Trentino-Alto Adige, one of the five regions which is granted special autonomous status by Italian Constitution.

South Tyrol is, in other words, a self-governing country within another autonomous territory. Since the 1972 regional reform, and unlike the rest of provinces, Bolzano-South Tyrol enjoys a high level of legislative powers. It also has a considerable fiscal autonomy, as 90% of the taxes collected are retained in the province.

As regards legislative issues, South Tyrol has exclusive powers over place names, tourism, town planning, agriculture and primary education, among others. Local police, secondary education, trade and health care are issues over which the province shares powers with Italy.

The agenda for the new legislature the South Tyrolean People’s Party (SVP) -the political party governing the country in coalition with the Democratic Party (Partito Democratico, PD) – outlined last December 30 gave priority to fiscal federalism and announced the purpose of demanding the transfer of more powers from Rome to Bozen (Bolzano, in Italian), the capital of the province.

Among other issues, the president of the province, Luis Durnwalder, mentioned transfer of powers over the postal service, public security and state and judiciary staff, as well as the Italian public service broadcaster (RAI). The South Tyrolean government wants RAI to include German and Ladin, the county’s own languages, in television and radio schedules. Click here for the relevant Nationalia article.

South Tyrol’s political arena is mainly monopolized by South Tyrol-only political parties. Majority parties in Italy – Il Popolo della Libertà and Partito Democratico- only have 5 seats out of 35, whereas South Tyrolean nationalists have no less than 26.

There are, though, remarkable differences among the nationalist political spectrum. The SVP (18 seats), autonomist and Christian democrat, defends the interests of the German and Ladin communities, but it does not call for the current status to be altered -a large autonomy granted by a bilateral agreement between Italy and Austria, under the Statute of Autonomy of 1972. Several other parties wish to go beyond the status-quo. Such is the case of the Libertarians (5 seats), which ask for a referendum for reunification with Austria to be held, the Union for South Tyrol (1 seat) and its splinter party South Tyrolean Freedom (2 seats), both committed to the right to self-determination.

The Green Party has also presence in the Parliament of South Tyrol (2 seats), as well as the Northern League Südtirol and Unitalia (1 seat each). Click on South Tyrol profile for further information.

Picture: Flag of South Tyrol, photo by Florian Seiffert.

South Tyrol/Südtirol

General information
Population: 487.673 inhabitants (2006)
Area: 7.400 km2
Institutions: Province of Bozen
State administration: Italy
Major cities: Bozen (Bolzano), Meran (Merano), Brixen (Bressanone), Brünick (Brunico)
Territorial language: German and Ladin
Official language: German and Italian
Major religion: Christianity (Catholicism)

Source

I don’t know… but I like it

Deux jours de voyage, incluant une pause à Imst (Rosengartenschlucht)

Nous partons le dernier samedi d’août, et dans chaque pays traversé il y a beaucoup de travaux sur les routes. Nous devrons également nous farcir plusieurs embouteillages en Allemagne.

Une chambre avait été réservée pour la nuit au Gästehaus Almrausch dans le petit village autrichien de Nassereith, mais lorsque nous arrivons il y a une lettre scotchée sur la porte extérieure avec mon nom dessus. Quelques lignes en allemand nous apprennent qu’ils nous ont réservé une chambre au bed & breakfast Maria, juste à côté ! En fait ils ont préféré relouer notre chambre à des touristes restant plus qu’une seule nuit… Je trouve cela fort de café car déjà, quand on reste seulement une ou deux nuits chez eux, ils augmentent sérieusement le prix de la nuitée ! Et ils n’ont même pas la politesse de nous l’apprendre en face…

Quand on va sonner à côté, la dame nous explique, également en allemand, qu’elle affiche complet. On lui montre la lettre de l’autre gästehaus disant que c’est réservé pour nous chez elle… Elle est embêtée, apparemment elle avait pourtant expliqué à la 1ère logeuse que ce n’était pas possible ! Ou alors elle a également reloué à d’autres gens ? Dans tous les cas, on se retrouve sans logement, on n’a pas encore soupé et la nuit tombe. On n’a pas d’autres adresses sous la main, étant donné que c’était réservé (pour une fois qu’on est organisé !)…

La dame va donner un coup de fil et essaie gentiment de dépatouiller les choses pour nous… Un type arrive en grosse voiture et va droit au but : il a encore une chambre libre pour cette nuit, c’est 30 euros par personne, est-ce que ça nous intéresse oui ou non. C’est plus cher et il ne nous inspire ni confiance ni sympathie mais bon, c’est pas comme si on avait beaucoup d’autres choix.

On le suit en voiture jusqu’à l’autre bout du village, il tient un grand hôtel s’appelant Seeblick. Tout un car d’Allemands y est descendu. Nous mangeons par facilité au restaurant de l’hôtel, la cuisine est correcte et le prix aussi. On fait ensuite une courte promenade dans le village, il y a beaucoup de chats et un assez joli lac.

La chambre n’est pas terrible, surtout la salle de bain. Ca ne vaut pas le prix demandé. Une bonne rénovation serait nécessaire, même pour les couloirs ! Jusqu’à tard, on entendra à l’étage du dessous toutes les chaises et tables qui sont remises à leur place suite au souper du bus. Un bruit de machinerie (ventilation ?) nous empêchera de dormir jusque 4h du matin. Bref, la joie.

Le lendemain matin, nous petit-déjeunons en compagnie d’une horde de chamois d’Allemands. Les fenêtres de la salle donnent sur une énorme paroi rocheuse dominant le village. Nous y verrons plusieurs chamois.

Nous filons vers Imst pour achever la promenade du Jardin des Roses (Rosengarten) entamée un soir quelques années plus tôt…

Cette gorge perd indéniablement de son charme avec la surfréquentation due à un dimanche ensoleillé pendant les vacances scolaires. Il y a notamment des troupeaux entiers d’adolescents beuglant qu’on laisse passer. Difficile de prendre des photos vierges de monde… mais pas impossible.

Le chemin est souvent constitué de passerelles en bois, il y a des ponts, des tunnels, c’est très ludique.

Arrivés en haut, nous nous laissons séduire par un panneau “Blaue Grotte“… il s’agit en fait d’une petite mine de plomb argentifère. Elle aurait déjà été exploitée au temps des Romains, qui en auraient tiré la galène par exploitation au feu.

Une étroite galerie de 35m de long part de la salle d’entrée, mais il aurait fallu le maillot de bain pour la visiter ! Un petit ruisseau fait cascade pour rejoindre la gorge et entre en partie dans la mine.

Nous allons jusqu’à Arzl im Pitztal dans l’espoir de trouver un coin tranquille pour le pic-nic de midi, mais les routes sont toutes envahies de motards. C’est donc dans un bruit incessant et stressant que nous mangeons dare-dare avant de reprendre notre chemin.

A peine la frontière italienne passée, nous tombons sur un embouteillage de presque 10km. Cette portion d’autoroute, constituée quasi exclusivement de viaducs et de tunnels, est à péage… et c’est la station du péage qui provoque ces files.

Nous arrivons finalement à notre destination, au sud de Badia : un village nommé “La Villa” en italien, “La Illa” en ladin et “Stern” en allemand. On pose les bagages et on va se détendre le long de la rivière Gadera et ses prairies si vertes.

Ce soir-là il y a une fête au village et plein de gens sont en habits folkloriques. Il y a un ensemble musical local qui joue même bien, si si. Nous irons manger un peu à l’écart, par besoin de calme.

Imst est surnommée “la ville des fontaines” (il y en a 40).

Innsbruck (APA/red.). Sogar ein Fernsehteam aus Australien war angereist, um dabei zu sein: Am Sonntag fand in der Innsbrucker Innenstadt der im Vorfeld heftig diskutierte Landesfestumzug statt. Der Höhepunkt im Andreas-Hofer-Gedenkjahr 2009, bei dem man dem 200-Jahr-Jubiläum der Bergiselschlachten gedachte, verlief weitgehend friedlich und ohne die befürchteten Zwischenfälle.

Bundespräsident Heinz Fischer, Bundeskanzler Werner Faymann (SPÖ) sowie die beiden Landeshauptleute Günther Platter (ÖVP) und Luis Durnwalder (SVP) strichen vor allen den europäischen Charakter der Veranstaltung hervor.

Bundespräsident Heinz Fischer betonte, dass Österreich einen Zustand erreicht habe, der ein friedliches Zusammenleben mit allen Nachbarn möglich mache. Bereits am Beginn des Festumzuges hatte er den Südtirolern versichert, dass “sie sich weiter auf Österreich verlassen” könnten. Für Durnwalder habe die Veranstaltung gezeigt, dass die Südtiroler “eine lebendige österreichische Minderheit in Italien” seien. Platter meinte, der Festumzug habe gezeigt, wie stark die Tradition in allen Teilen des Landes verwurzelt sei. Für Faymann sei eine Politik der Regionen ein wichtiger Garant für den Frieden in Europa.

Bei strahlendem Sonnenschein und spätsommerlicher Hitze marschierten rund 30.000 Mitglieder von Traditionsverbänden begleitet von Blasmusik durch Innsbruck. “Unsere Heimat Tirol – EINigt TIROL in Europa”, “Ein Tirol – nach über 90 Jahren Unrechtsgrenze fordern wir die Wiedervereinigung Süd-Tirols mit Österreich” war auf Transparenten von Südtiroler Schützen zu lesen. Trentiner forderten “Wir sind ein Volk – Von Kufstein bis Borghetto”, Vertreter von Ladiner-Verbänden verlangten “zurück nach Bozen” (die kleinste Volksgruppe der Region ist auf drei Provinzen aufgeteilt, Anm.).

Auch die umstrittene Dornenkrone wurde wie angekündigt mitgetragen. Ihre Symbolik wurde allerdings “entschärft”, indem sie mit 2009 Rosen verziert worden war. Die “Dornenkrone” soll das Leid der 1919 abgetrennten Südtiroler versinnbildlichen.

Bereits zu Beginn der Veranstaltung hatte Platter von einem “Symbol für den Aufbruch in einem gemeinsamen, friedlichen Europa” gesprochen. Ein Europa, das das Historische Tirol wieder näher zusammen geführt habe, “ein Europa, in dem die Europaregion Tirol ihren Lebensraum wieder selbst gestalten kann”. Diözesanbischof Manfred Scheuer hatte betont, dass Heimat nicht durch Abschotten entstehe. Ein starkes Selbstbewusstsein zu haben, sei “keine Sünde”. Dies dürfe aber nicht durch Feindbilder entstehen.

Dank der des anhaltenden Schönwetters und der hohen Temperaturen hatte das Rote Kreuz am Sonntag beim Tiroler Landesfestumzug “relativ viel” zu tun. 75 Versorgungen zählten die Retter gegen 16.00 Uhr. Hauptsächlich mussten Teilnehmer versorgt werden, die auf Grund der Hitze Kreislaufprobleme bekamen. Betroffen waren vor allem “ältere Herrschaften”, meinte der Leitende Notarzt. Die Trachten seien nicht für ihre Hitzefreundlichkeit bekannt. Das längere Stehen werde für viele zum Problem. Einer der Zuschauer musste wegen Herzkreislaufproblemen zur Abklärung in die Innsbrucker Klinik eingeliefert werden. Ruhig verlief der Landesfestumzug hingegen aus Sicht der Polizei, die mit 250 Beamten im Einsatz war. Bis zum späteren Nachmittag lagen keinerlei Anzeigen vor, teilte die Exekutive mit.
(APA)

30.000 TeilnehmerInnen – über 70.000 ZuschauerInnen

Innsbruck (ots) – 30.000 TeilnehmerInnen aus über 1000 Vereinen der Traditionsverbände zogen beim Landesfestumzug Sonntagmittag durch die Innsbrucker Innenstadt. Über 70.000 ZuschauerInnen verfolgten die knapp fünfstündige Parade auf einer Strecke von rund 1,7 Kilometern von der Triumphpforte bis in die Universitätsstraße. Der Landesfestumzug ist, gemessen an der Zahl der aktiven TeilnehmerInnen, der Höhepunkt des Gedenkjahres 2009, das unter dem Motto “Geschichte trifft Zukunft” steht. Neben TeilnehmerInnen der Europaregion Tirol-Südtirol-Trentino waren Abordnungen aus Vorarlberg, Salzburg, Kärnten, Bayern, Liechtenstein, Baden-Württemberg, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Belgien und Rumänien zu sehen. Allen voran marschierten 3000 Jugendliche.

Vor Beginn des Landesfestumzuges wurde im Dom zu St. Jakob ein feierliches Pontifikalamt mit Diözesanbischof Manfred Scheuer zelebriert. “Geschichte trifft Zukunft ist die Chance, das WIR – die Gemeinschaft, das Miteinander – zu stärken. Der heutige Festumzug wird von jungen Menschen angeführt. Eine unserer wichtigsten Aufgaben ist, jungen Menschen eine Zukunft zu geben”, betonte Bischof Scheuer.

Nach 21 Salutschüssen des Bataillons Sonnenburg aus historischen Schützenkanonen erfolgte die Meldung von Landeskommandant Otto Sarnthein zum Landesüblichen Empfang. Bundespräsident Heinz Fischer bedankte sich bei Kommandant Sarnthein sowie allen teilnehmenden Traditionsverbänden und -vereinen “für ihre langjährige und verdienstvolle Tätigkeit”. Nach Abschreiten der Ehrenfront durch Bundespräsident Fischer sowie den Landeshauptleuten Günther Platter (Tirol), Luis Durnwalder (Südtirol) und Lorenzo Dellai (Trentino) erfolgte die Ehrensalve der Schützenkompanie Breitenbach am Inn.

“Mit viel Jugend findet heute dieser traditionelle großartige Landesfestumzug in Innsbruck statt”, freute sich Bundespräsident Heinz Fischer. “Ich weiß, dass Tirol ein geschichtsbewusstes und zukunftsoffenes Land zugleich ist. Die Tirolerinnen und Tiroler sind stolz auf ihr reiches Erbe. Ich bin stolz darauf, dass es Menschen gegeben hat, die dazu beigetragen haben, dass Wunden verheilen konnten”, so der Bundespräsident. Heute stehe Tirol nördlich und südlich des Brenners mit beiden Beinen in einer friedlichen europäischen Gegenwart. “Südtirol wird sich auch in Zukunft, so wie bisher, auf Österreich verlassen können”.

“Gerade in den letzten Jahren hat sich sehr viel getan”, betonte Landeshauptmann Günther Platter in seiner Eröffnungsansprache. “Die Grenzen sind gefallen und es findet ein gemeinsamer Austausch statt. Tirol ist heute wieder frei im Herzen Europas. Schauen wir mit Respekt zurück, blicken wir aber mit Optimismus nach vorne! Tirol ist heute eine moderne Region mit einem festen Wertefundament”.

Am Landesfestumzug nahmen Bundespräsident Heinz Fischer, Bundeskanzler Werner Faymann, Vizekanzler Josef Pröll, die drei Landeshauptleuten Günther Platter, Luis Durnwalder und Lorenzo Dellai sowie VertreterInnen der Tiroler, Südtiroler und Trentiner Landesregierungen teil.

Statements:

Heinz Fischer, Bundespräsident der Republik Österreich: “Geschichte trifft Zukunft: Ein klug gewähltes Thema. Ich war überrascht, wie viel Zukunft, Jugend und Optimismus in diesem Festumzug erkennbar waren. Ich fühle mich bestärkt in meiner Auffassung, dass wir heute einen Zustand erreicht haben, wo wir uns mit allen unseren Nachbarn gut verstehen und an der Europäischen Idee arbeiten. In 25 Jahren werden wir schauen, wie weit wir gekommen sind. “

Werner Faymann, Bundeskanzler der Republik Österreich: “Mein Dank geht an die Organisatoren und die vielen Ehrenamtlichen; so viel Einsatz ist etwas Besonderes. Ich bin stolz, darauf hinweisen zu können, dass wir in Europa die längste Periode des Friedens haben. Der Friede in Europa hängt sehr stark mit den nachbarschaftlichen Beziehungen zusammen. Die Politik der Regionen in Europa ist ganz wichtig: Wer mit seinen Nachbarn redet, Brücken baut, der leistet auch einen Beitrag für eine friedliche Entwicklung. Heute war eine Veranstaltung, die die Stärken dieser Region aufgezeigt hat.”

Günther Platter, Landeshauptmann des Bundeslandes Tirol: “Es war ein unvergesslicher Tag heute hier in Tirol. Ich freue mich, dass insgesamt rund 100.000 Menschen dabei waren – 30.000 Teilnehmer und 70.000 Besucher. Sehr wichtig ist mir heute ‘Vergelt’s Gott’ zu sagen: Allen, die diesen Festumzug organisiert haben und allen Teilnehmerinnen.

Es ist uns gelungen, die Verbindung zwischen Tradition und Moderne sowie einen Blick in die Zukunft der Europaregion Tirol zu zeigen. Wir werden in diese Richtung weiter arbeiten. Am 15. Oktober findet die gemeinsame Sitzung der drei Landesregierungen in Innsbruck statt.”

Luis Durnwalder, Landeshauptmann von Südtirol: “Ich habe mich sehr gefreut über den Ablauf dieses Festumzuges. Es war der Höhepunkt im Gedenkjahr.

Wir haben sehr viele Verbände und Vereine in den verschiedenen kulturellen Bereichen und viele Menschen die ehrenamtlich arbeiten. Für uns war es wichtig, diese Kulturarbeit zu zeigen. Wir sind heute eine Minderheit in Italien, die nicht sterbend, sondern aktiv ist.

Es gab keine der im Vorfeld gefürchteten Störaktion. Aus der Dornenkrone von 1959 sind heute Rosen herausgewachsen, die eine positive Entwicklung symbolisieren: Die Entwicklung hin zur Autonomie. Es hat mich besonders gefreut, dass sich das Trentino und vor allem die Ampezzaner so stark beteiligt haben. Wir haben gezeigt, dass wir nicht zurückschauen, sondern überzeugte Europäer sind “.

Lorenzo Dellai, Landeshauptmann des Trentino: “Was die Teilnehmer hier vereint, ist der Respekt vor unserer gemeinsamen, auch bewegten Geschichte und die Überzeugung, dass der Blick nach vorne gehen muss. Am heutigen Tag haben wir einen Blick in die Geschichte und Zukunft unserer drei Länder geworfen”.

Bildmaterial unter: http://www.tourismuspresse.at/redirect.php?tirol42

Rückfragehinweis: Amt der Tiroler Landesregierung Öffentlichkeitsarbeit Mag. Alexandra Sidon Tel.: +43 (0)512 508-2866 Fax: +43 (0)512 508-2245 mailto:alexandra.sidon@tirol.gv.at

Originaltext: Amt der Tiroler Landesregierung Digitale Pressemappe: http://www.presseportal.de/pm/53978 Pressemappe via RSS : http://www.presseportal.de/rss/pm_53978.rss2

© 2009 news aktuell

Cats, hometown, a green valley and so on….

My blog will be taking a vacation during the month of July and I don’t plan on making many (or any) posts.

Our family will be doing a house exchange with a family from Ötztal-Bahnhof, Austria for the month of July.  You can see from the pinprick on the map where we’ll be staying.

Ötztal-Bahnhof is in the Tyrol region of western Austria about 30 minutes west of Innsbruck.  In addition, we will be spending a couple of days in Munich, Germany and Vienna, Austria.  And of course, we will be visiting Salzburg so we can get our Sound of Music fix.

See you all when I return refreshed and relaxed in August.

Map of Ötztal-Bahnhof, Austria

The Top of Tyrol in Austria is possibly the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. Not that I’ve actually seen it, but, from the pictures, it looks amazing!!!! Damn!!!!

Austria’s lakes and mountains regions combine some of Europe’s most stunning scenery and are the perfect destination for those looking for either rest and relaxation or perhaps something a little more active. Picturesque mountain scenery and clean, shimmering lakes abound in the Carinthian, Tyrolean and Salzkammergut regions where Austria Travel offers its carefully selected programme of accommodation.

Austria’s southernmost province Carinthia is warm, often hot during the summer months, offering relaxed swimming and walking around a beautiful centrepiece body of water, Lake Worthersee. Charming lakeside towns and villages including Pörtscach and Millstattersee are complemented by Carinthian mountain hideaways, including well known winter sport destination Bad Kleinkirchheim and the smaller St Oswald.

Austria’s southernmost province Carinthia is warm, often hot during the summer months, offering relaxed swimming and walking around a beautiful centrepiece body of water, Lake Worthersee. Charming lakeside towns and villages including Pörtscach and Millstattersee are complemented by Carinthian mountain hideaways, including well known winter sport destination Bad Kleinkirchheim and the smaller St Oswald.

The beautiful Salzkammergut provides the ideal setting for our popular walking and cycling holidays. With the mountains providing a dramatic backdrop, tours circumnavigate some of the region’s best known lakes, including Mondsee, Wolfgangsee and the Attersee where routes guide you thorough scenic landscapes, across alpine pastures and over mountain peaks.

Walking enthusiasts will also enjoy the western region of the Tyrol where miles of well marked footpaths provide access to beautiful landscapes, and in the high season cable cars and chairlifts transport visitors in to the mountains.

Whether you are looking for a relaxing mountain hideaway, charming lakeside retreat or the more active option, Austria’s lakes and mountains have something for everyone all year round.