Fifth Course: The Dolomites

While the Dolomites were a big part of our trip, I can only write so much because the pictures really tell the story. For instance, this was the view from the Airbnb's porch.

On our drive from Ferrara, we passed multiple castles, beautiful grape farms and some amazing views. As we drove up the winding roads, our excitement grew, for each town we passed was getting more beautiful and more amazing. When we reached the place we were staying at, the cleaning lady was there. She didn't speak English, though she did speak German. As we looked more closely, the town must have been using both German and Italian as the main language even though Germany is still mountain ranges and a whole country away. The town we were staying at was called Castelrotto and we faced the mountains.

After taking a little break, we drove down to Seceda ski area, where we hopped on a very expensive gondola... BUT it was worth every penny! The pictures speak for themselves, though Mom said that it was the most beautiful place she had ever seen, and she has traveled all over the world.

asfafaf

Yes, they were all taken at the same place. Unfortunately, the last tram left at 5:30 pm and unless we wanted to take a 4-6 hour hike down, we had to go on it. It was a bummer for we had only been up there for 50 minutes and we could have sat and watched for hours. At the bottom of Seceda, we explored a beautiful cemetery,

and participated in a mindfulness activity where you walked in a man-made stream, taking your foot out of the water each step before getting out, not drying your feet off, to collapse in a hammock or sit on a bench.

The water attracted mosquitos though, adding to our bug bites. On our way back, we tried to stop by a grocery store only to find that all of them close at 7:30. We had no food, so we wandered around the small mountain town until we found a pizza restaurant for everybody but me! The pizza guy was really good at his job. He spoke at least 3 different languages and could make 5 different pizzas at the same time. We went home and as I ate my pasta, we continued our gin rumy tournament before getting tired and going to bed. The next day was supposed to be rainy and after a quick run to the grocery store, we packed up the car and drove 1 hour 30 minutes to Lage de Braise. We took a hike around the amazing place, which took around 2 hours with all the stops we took. We passed some large cows and lots of pretty flowers on the way!

On the way back, Mom decided to take the longest way possible back to the house, and of course I was frustrated. For someone who gets nauseous in cars, it's super nice to not be in them. Of course, I was fighting a losing battle and after getting turned around multiple times (mhumm, Mom), we evetually made it to a beautiful road where we passed through some amazing ski towns. Calfosch and Calvara were our favorites.

We stopped at least 10 times to take pictures, and for good reason too!

We then went to St. Christina where, after driving as far as our weak Fiat could go, we hiked up a bit. The flowers were amazing and the veiws were beautiful.

And look what I almost tripped over while running!

We then headed back to our place, for it had finally started dumping rain! We stayed up late playing games before hitting the hay. We woke up to go back to Ferrara to drop off the car, and then we were off to Milan!

Yep, we finally tuckered them out! We were all tuckered out by then. (Good job, once again, on the blog, Scout. Thank you...) The Dolomites were incredible, needless to say, and all the more so for being the end of a mystery after a trip already so full of wonders. In planning our trip, I mean to say, Suzy and I were really firing blind after Florence. Suzy wanted to get into the north, but it was, by comparison, hard to book a place, hard to find a place where we wanted to book a place in. But we took the chance, and, man, am I glad we did... So, full disclosure, Florence was our favorite city in Italy, as I already told you, but that's also because the Dolomites aren't a city. They really don't fit any of our categories, except one--and in that one, they blew everything else away: greatest vista. They blew it away many times over, and did a lot to change my whole orientation to Europe, which previously had enticed me for its history and culture--for those human creations that stand testament to both. I'm still reeling, actually. About this I will say more later, but for now, as Scout said, we have our last course to serve you: Milan, which, as you might suspect, could not be at this point, for lack of our own capacity, much more than an afterthought of our overall experience. Scout, if you will...