justretired

Castelrotto (Kastelruth) sounds like a great base for the Dolomites, BUT:

On TripAdvisor.com, one trip report says that the church bells ring ALL NIGHT, saying, "For seven nights, night after night, hour after hour, I listened to those bells. I slept very little in Kastelruth." That would drive me crazy.

But another report from a hotel right next to the belltower says, "... you will rise on time at 7 AM, trust me." That sort of implies that the bells DIDN'T ring at 6 AM.

Can anyone clarify whether the bells in Castelrotto actually ring all night? How about in Ortisei?

We'll probably stay in either Castelrotto or Ortisei. Do you have any preferred, QUIET hotel? Do we need to stay in an out-of-town hotel to avoid the bells?

Thanks.

- Larry

bobthenavigator

Larry, our room was within 15 yards of the belltower and I do not recall any problem. We have also stayed in Ortisei and really like both---Castelrotto is much smaller and more quaint.

Chicago_Heather

It depends upon how soundly you sleep. My single room had a skylight with the only view being the bell tower that loomed overhead. I slept right through every tolling of the bells.

justretired

Bob & Heather, thanks for the help. But do you recall, specifically, if the bells ring all night, as the first TripAdvisor poster seems to say?

Perhaps you can both sleep through the bells. Perhaps I could, too. But I doubt if my wife Margret could - she's a light sleeper. We don't mind waking at 7 AM, but if the bells ring at 10pm, 11pm, midnight, 1am, 2am, and so on, we'd better stay somewhere else.

- Larry

LoveItaly

Hi justretired, we are all different and have various sleeping patterns of course but your question made me think of one of my stays in a small city in Congeliano. My bedroom was next to the church bells of the duomo and my friends were concered I would not be able to sleep. They rang every 15 minutes 24 hours a day. After one hour I really never heard them unless I made an effort to. But I am a sound sleeper and know that many people are not.

Chicago_Heather

Larry, I don't recall if they rang all night. After all the fresh air, hiking, good food, and wine, I slept like a log.

The lovely hotel where I stayed would probably answer your question if you sent a quick email.

[email protected]

Chicago_Heather

P.S.

Larry, if you are interested, I can email you the link to my trip photos.

justretired

LoveItaly, your reply reminded me of an old story, probably apocryphal, about a small Russian village in Siberia, right next to the main line of the Trans-Siberian Railway. Every morning at 2:30 A.M., a train roared by at high speed, shaking the entire village. The villagers got used to it, and slept through it without any difficulty.

Then, one evening, an avalanch far up the line blocked the train, so no train passed through that night. At 2:30 A.M., everyone in the village woke up, saying, "What was that?"

As Simon and Garfunkel wrote, "The Sound of Silence".

- Larry

candert

Larry,

I stayed at the Cavallino d'oro in Kastelruth last October. The hotel is on the square just below the bell tower. I was awake all night, but not from the bells, I had a nasty cold. But yes the bells do ring all night. My wife slept just fine though.

Castlerotto is an amazing place. Don't let some bell tower keep you away. We left wishing we had more time to spend there.

jal52

Hi, I am a very light sleeper and always travel with foam earplugs and an airline sleep mask. They have really helped me sleep through church bells, soccer teams down the hall, etc. in various cities.

I am glad you posted this question, though, because I will also be staying in Castelrotto this fall and so will advise all my traveling companions to be prepared!

justretired

Hi, jal52,

I have tinnitus, a permanent ringing in my ears. It was caused by a sonic injury - I made two screamingly loud cuts with a circular saw on a piece of plywood, inside my garage, without any hearing protection. Never do that. It's irreversible.

Anyway, I always carry foam earplugs, to prevent any further damage. But they're not the most comfortable things to sleep with. And my wife, who's the light sleeper, has trouble with them - they irritate her ears considerably.

We stayed a couple of years ago at a great hotel, Las Casas de la Judería, in Seville, Spain. But the room they put us in the first night was alongside an alley, and people kept passing by chatting, into the wee small hours of the morning. I got very little sleep, and we changed rooms the next day.

- Larry

Steve_James

Larry - I do recall the bells in Castelrotto though it wasn't a problem for me.

You could contact the tourist info office to confirm whether they ring through the night - here's their e-mail address:

[email protected]

There wasn't a problem in Ortisei.

Hope this helps ...

Steve

justretired

I thought some readers might be curious as to what decision we made on where to stay in the Dolomites. Although we will almost certainly visit Castelrotto, which sounds charming, we're reserved a room at the Hotel Uhrerhof, near Ortisei (St. Ulrich).

One factor was the replies on this forum, which do seem to indicate that the bells ring all night in Castelrotto. We also recalled a wonderful stay at the Poggio d'Asproli, in Umbria, back in 1998. That is a B&B that is some distance outside the town of Todi. After driving around all day, we always loved coming back to that isolated locale to have a nice relaxing dinner, and then sleeping in total peace and quiet. Coming from the well-lit US, it is one of the few times in my recent adult life I've seen the milky way (I do recall it from my summer camp days in Sturbridge, Massachusetts). I also saw in Todi a blinking star, that could only have been a spinning satellite.

Although I starting planning this trip thinking of it as largely a visit to the Lakes District, and a return to Venice, I'm becoming more and more intrigued by the Dolomites. As I correspond with people there, and look at the web sites, it's clear that the local language really is German, and Italian is a second language to most (writing in English, they write things like "creditcardnumber&quot. The hotels look more like something transplanted from the Bavarian Alps than anything that belongs in Italy, yet that's where they are. It looks like a rather fascinating area.

- Larry

janemc

Hi Larry:
I can't remember when you are going, but I so look forward to your trip report. If you happen to get as far as Cortina in the Dolomites please give us details.
I stayed a night in beautiful Gubbio in Umbria which had church bells that rang every l5 min. The last ones I recall were at 2:30 A.M. So I can appreciate your decision.

justretired

Janemc, our trip starts mid September, returning October 3. We'll probably get TO Cortina, but won't spend a night there. Our hotels (we're staying in more different places than we usually do) are:

Hotel Verbano, Isola dei Pescatori, Lago Maggiore

Hotel Eremo Gaudio, Lago di Como

Hotel Gardesana, Lago di Garda

Hotel Uhrerhof, Ortisei, Dolomites

Ca'Amadi, Venice

Antica Locanda Leonardo, Milan

We get a great deal of help on all our trips from Fodorites, and always write a trip report when we return.

- Larry

Steve_James

Larry - I'm not surprised you chose the Uhrerhof. It looks delightful, doesn't it?

You're right, the Dolomites is a fascinating area - with some of the most spectacular mountain scenery imaginable!
That's why I keep going back ...

Much of the area was historically part of Austria, of course (- it only became Italian territory at the end of WW1) - so the majority population in the Sud Tirol/Alto Adige region is German mother-tongue.

In the area you are staying - Val Gardena - the first language is actually Ladin, followed by German. Italian gets relegated to third place.

But you only have to cross a mountain pass from one valley to another (- from Alto Adige to the Trentino or Veneto Dolomites) to cross the linguistic boundary. You won't hear much German in Cortina, for example, or Val di Fassa ...

All part of the attraction of this fabulous area. I'm sure you'll have a great time there.

Steve

justretired

Something very strange happened with my last posting on this thread. I posted it 6/27 at 2:12pm, but when I looked later, it was not there. I just looked again, over 26 hours later, having rebooted the computer, and it is still not there. It doesn't show up on my wife's computer either.

But when I did a "Reply", bringing up the little "post a reply" window on the right, the thread appears on the left. And scanning down to the bottom, there's my reply! The only way I can see it is to post a reply!

Really strange. I assume others can't see it either, so I copied and pasted it here. I wonder if the effect will be for it to show up twice? Here it is:

--------------------
Thanks, Steve_James, for helping us several times.

Your mention of the language Ladin sent me off to Wikipedia to learn a bit more about it.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladin_language

Part of my pleasure in traveling springs from my interest in languages in general, and the Romance languages in particular. Studying Italian is expecially interesting, because the modern language is so young, and there are so many dialects still in active use.

Now for this trip, I'm not only brushing up on my Italian, but also doing a very quick review of my college conversational German. In the latter, I think I may have finally simplified the definite article and adjectivial declensions down to a point where I may actually have some hope of remembering them. I don't know how little children speak that language.

I don't want to get carried away with the German, though. The Dolomites are only a three-day portion of a 2.5 week trip.

- Larry

jal52

Larry, your wife might want to try Flents Quiet Please! foam earplugs. They are form cylinders that you squish up before inserting; they are much more comfortable to me than the pre-formed kinds I have tried. They cost about $6 for the box of 6 pair.

I use them every day when I blow dry my hair, sometimes at night in big storms, and in the airplane and in hotels as necessary when traveling.

justretired

jal52, thanks for the tip, but she's tried them, and the foam plugs irritate the inside of her ear. I use them for hearing protection when awake, but they are a little strange to sleep on - when you lie on that side, the pressure of the pillow tends to drive them into your ear.

I wonder if anyone knows of a sound deadener that's really comfortable to sleep on? A web search didn't turn up anything innovative. There do seem to be some earplugs that are softern than Flents, and easier to sleep on, but less durable.

- Larry