Geomapping: what a wonderful world!

Suppose you have a set of lat/lon points, where do you find out their elevation?
Simple, let say you have the following coordinates (a cross in concrete on the top of the hill in front of my parents' place):
45.469678, 10.970527 (I got these from 'Get Directions from here' in google maps)
Then call a USGS' web service from the URL below.
It says
getElevation
for Latitude 45.46 --> Y_Value=45.469678
for Longitude 10.97 --> X_Value=10.970527
return result in meters --> Elevation_Units=METERS
use the best survey available --> Source_Layer=-1
not other additional info --> Elevation_Only=true

http://gisdata.usgs.gov/xmlwebservices2/elevation_service.asmx/getElevation?Y_Value=45.469678&X_Value=10.970527&Elevation_Units=METERS&Source_Layer=-1&Elevation_Only=true

Why would you want elevations?

To plot an elevation chart of a bike or hiking tour.

Amazing what you can find around...

(This was inspired by http://econym.org.uk/gmap/altitude.htm)