We arrived in Bolzano just as a heat wave arrived, so we headed for the mountains. It was gorgeous up there, beautiful high meadows, some mountain lakes we swam in, wonderful trails beneath soaring, snow-covered peaks. A lot of people up there speak German, and since I look German, that's how people usually greeted me, which meant struggling to communicate, even though I do actually speak Italian.

I'm not sure where that is in Japan. We've been hiking up along the old Post Road trails in Japan, which is a different sort of beautiful than the Alps, but still great.