It's a long story, but I lost my wedding ring (a relatively simple gold band that Gayle picked out…read moretogether) and I've been looking to replace it with something special, but not quite up to the quality of the original. In other words, I still hope to find the original ring and don't want to upstage it when I do. Last September, Gayle and I spent a very special 3 days in Castelrotto/Kastelruth and I figured that this might be the place to find my ring. I found an intriguing advertisement for Goldschmiede Wallnofer in a recent issue of ALPE and contacted Lisa who helped me find a nice traditional wedding ring from the 19th Century in silver gold plate. It arrived yesterday, it fits, and it's gorgeous. Gayle jokes that I'm "marrying myself" with this sort of behavior, but wearing a wedding band on my left hand is really important and special. So also might be a repeat trip to the South Tyrol and resolving my debt to Stefan for a certain Schlernhexen.

UPDATE June 22 '23: Six months later I heard from someone at…read moreSalewa USA, who's apparently arranged for me to return the items to Salewa USA for a refund, which I just did. Thus it appears this story (eventually) has a "happy ending." That said, I'm still not "giving all the stars back" because communication really could've been better and I still don't know whether it was at least partially Salewa's fault that my return to Italy was "bounced" back to me.

Sport and Tradition Griesser is located just down the street from Piazza Kraus and was a handy…read moreplace for Gayle to buy a nice fleece jacket (on sale) for the chilly hikes ahead and above within the nearby Seiser Alm. The store offers a nice selection of both sports-related and traditional attire found within the South Tyrol.

This translates to Ladele Witches. This is a store a block down from Piazza Kraus that Gayle and I…read morestopped to buy come cute red reindeer towels for her Mom. It was a fun place to walk in as the Lady running the place was so happy and helpful. Everything had its place here, but displays were so dense that you had to really pay attention to the layers of stuff that this store offers. In hindsight, I should have looked harder for a good Schlern witch (or representation) to bring home.