Levico Terme, Italy

Levico Terme in Trentino was an new site for us. Turning out of the Trento valley late in the evening it was a relief to escape the howling wind. As we headed along the autostrada we met new concerns as the valley constricted and became full of villages, power lines, apple orchards and more scarily, lakes! Why on earth were they running a paragliding competition here??!! There were no landing options AT ALL!
We turned a corner at the end of the lake to huge sighs of relief as a wide flat valley ( albeit full of orchards ) revealed itself.
I'd taken my bike so it was great to use the btt tracks that lead all the way down to Venice. Some of those portly middle-aged Italian chaps really shouldn't be seen on road bikes in shiny lycra though! Btw, they don't like getting overtaken by a chica on a mountain bike! Merlin and I had some adventures walking through the forests, playing in snow and generally becoming completely lost!
And then we went flying....
The site at Vetriolo Terme is pretty small, only 2 gliders wide but worked well for a competition of 100 pilots. The first week saw good conditions during the Xc camp with high base and not too much wind. During Czech Open the weather deteriorated slightly. I forgot to attach my speedsystem before the first task (tonta!) so pushing back 25km into a headwind of 20+km became a feat of endurance that I finally wimped out on as the goal field came into view. I missed the last tp but was happy after 4hours of flying to land somewhere with beer!
Second task to Feltre looked like it was going to be amazing. A 6m/s climb out straight to 2800m from launch put me at start right on time. As we headed east it became obvious that the instability was causing some very big clouds on course about 25km out. Various calls of level 2 were heard over the radio as we approached, followed by level 3 from others. Watching pilots pull in big ears after 9+m/s climbs to go under the black monster on course was enough for me. I went to land with a few others. We watched as it grew & grew and thought surely the task must be stopped.
It was stopped eventually but not until at least 1 1/2 hours after we landed when it finally rained in the goal field. A pilot still flying was heard to say that it didn't matter so much that they were getting heavily rained on - the cloud wasn't so dangerous anymore! OK, I am a wimp when it comes to big clouds, but talking to some top pilots who did continue they admitted that it was 'f'ing scary' near the storm.
After this I chucked in the towel with the comp, I went flying every day but didn't score. The weather had deteriorated with low base and wind so the tasks were more restrictive.
It was a fun two weeks camping with the Czech's, eating fab pizza and trying new pasta and risotto dishes. Italy is amazing - I'll be going back as soon as possible!