Mighty Dolomiti

After saying goodbye to the Prices on Thursday, we spent the rest of the day hanging out and relaxing (and catching up on the blogging!).   Most of Friday was also spent hanging out in Treviso…Julia and I went out to do some shopping – we would like to come home with some cute Italian dresses but haven’t given it much effort and haven’t had much luck.   We walked off in a different direction past where we normally turn around and found a whole new area of town we hadn’t seen before.  Rather than ask for directions we just wandered until we found something familiar again and in that process happened on a store called Playlife that we both loved.  My rule is that any clothes we buy this trip have to be made in Italy and preferably cheaper than we could find them in LA.  I did one better - finding clothes that are actually from Treviso, Italy (they are under the Benetton label) and not yet available in the US.  It was pretty cheap and the whole store was 50% off on top of that.  I think what I really found is Italy’s Old Navy.  But, that’s about our speed.

Friday night, however, the weekend trip to Cortina d’Apezzo (just 1.5 hours north of Treviso) began.  I got to choose my destination for my birthday and going into the Dolomite Mountains, my favorite terrain, was my top choice.  We had originally planned to spend just Saturday night but when Jim’s work schedule allowed it, we decided to go up on Friday night instead so we could wake up in Cortina on Saturday and spend the whole day exploring.  Italians like to vacation up there because even when it is super hot in the rest of Italy the mountains are cool.  The weather forecast had been saying that it was going to be highs in the upper 60s and raining all day long on Saturday, except for when it was thunder storming.  But, we kept to the plan and brought games and movies in case we were stuck in a hotel all day with no view of anything but clouds.  We weren’t able to add a night onto the hotel we had booked for Saturday (which was out of town) so we chose one right in the heart of Cortina for Friday night to give us a different experience. We checked into the Hotel Olimpia and got a recommendation for a restaurant that makes homemade pasta and pizza.  We went back to the rooms and watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympics – which felt fitting in a hotel called Olimpia in a town that hosted the seventh winter games.    

Saturday we woke up and it wasn’t raining and surprisingly it wasn’t even all that cold.  Jim and the girls went to the free buffet breakfast in the hotel and snuck food for me to have in bed (as is our birthday tradition).  They also had some great gifts they had picked up on our travels – a sunglass cleaner with Botecelli’s Venice on it, a deck of cards from Lake Garda, an apron decorated with fresh pastas, and a water glass made in Murano.   We wanted to take advantage of the clear skies so we set out to find a place to hike in the mountains.   (We had brought warm clothes with us to Italy in case we needed them and so far all they had done was take up space in our suitcases, so I was disappointed to not need them in the mountains either.)  We decided to go see Tre Cime di Lavaredo – a well-known mountain group in the Alps.   Just 20 minutes outside of  Cortina we came to the beautiful Lake Misurina, where the last natural ice Olympic speed skating events were held in 1956.   From the lake you get beautiful views of two of the three peaks (‘cime’ means peaks): Cima Grande and Cima Ovest.  

Shortly after the lake, you have to pay a heafty entrance fee (22 euro) to continue driving on a winding mountain road (with far fewer guardrails than there would have been in the US).   There’s one awe-inspiring view after another – no matter which way you turn – truly indescribably beautiful and majestic.   (I was hoping that the pictures would describe it better but even though we took over 300 that afternoon, they don’t even do it justice – I guess everyone has to go there for themselves to see.) Though Jim doubted me, the Dolomites were formed from coral reefs which give them a pinkish hue.  You can drive as far as Refuge Auronzo, from which you are still only able to see the same two peaks.   

The minute we parked the car and got out, we realized how cold it had gotten as we gained elevation and dug through our suitcases to pull out long pants and jackets.  While we were still at the car the forecasted rain arrived – but even more than rain, it started to hail!  Luckily we had brought umbrellas from Treviso (thanks Guerrino!).  The rainy hail came down hard and lasted until we found refuge inside.  We wondered if the peaks would be covered in clouds and if we should just turn back, but inside we spoke to a woman who told us two very important pieces of information: 1) though it takes about 5 hours to hike all the way around Tre Cime (not something we were prepared to do) continuing on the trail passed the second refuge (but not all the way to the third) would give us a view of the backside of Tre Cime, and 2)  the weather changes from minute to minute up there – so even if you can’t see the mountains now, you just must be patient.  So, we continued on,  along the pretty flat trail to the second refuge debating whether we were walking or hiking.   There was no rain at all and the views were spectacular.  

Do you see Jim?  Click to make it bigger

Just as we approached the second refuge it looked like rain was imminent and the girls were really hungry so we found a table inside, just as the rain and wind kicked up outside (it looked bad from the people we watched through the window as we ate our soup, pasta, and hot chocolate).  From here we could now see the third peak: Cima Piccola, but not the other two. We realized just how close we were to the Austrian border…as all signs were in Italian and Germany.  In turns out that before WWI, Tre Cime marked the border between Italy and Austria, but after the war the land became Italy’s.  The rain let up just as we finished our meal and we headed out toward refuge number three…and at that point the trail became quite steep and there was no more debate: we were hiking.  

We didn’t have to go far until we reached the point at which you could see Tre Cime.  Up to this point we honestly weren’t quite sure what we were looking at - it was all beautiful, but which peaks were which hadn't become quite clear.  I love that the only way to see the three peaks together is by foot.   We made our way back to the car, and just as we arrived back to the first refuge the rain started again.  We timed the rain perfectly and got to see such beauty along the way.

We drove back down the hill in the rain, stopping for more hot chocolate on the way to our hotel.   The view out my window was exactly as I had hoped and the balcony covered so thoroughly that even though it was raining out we could sit outside.  We all found spots sprawled out on beds or sitting on the balcony and spent the next glorious hour reading while the rain came down outside.  We didn’t feel like going back into town for dinner, so went to the little restaurant attached to our hotel.  When we walked in and were the only customers we wondered if that was such a smart move, but turns out that at 7:30 we were just early for dinner…it filled up as time went on.  We each ordered tortellini served a different way, and had some great desserts – apple strudel, chocolate lava cake, panne cotta – but no gelato.  A gelato-free birthday!!  And, yet, still the perfect day!

The new Playlife dress and the
 controversial jean jacket finally in use!

The thunderstorm with hail overnight I’m told sounded like a helicopter landing on the roof, but I slept through that and we woke up to dry skies and started planning another hike.   Within an hour the rain started in earnest again and the lightning spotting became our game.  A hike wasn’t going to be happening so we went to Cortina’s Museum of Modern Art before driving back back to Treviso, stopping to have lunch in a pizzeria along the way.  It was 13C (about 55F) and raining when we left the mountains…90 minutes later in Treviso it was 35C (95F) and sunny!  A whole other world.