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It's ironic that we started our journey with "Gnomeo & Juliet" on the plan and plan to end our journey in Verona.
I had terrible allergies and an aggravated neck nerve going into the trip. So, it was not the best travel day,
We rolled out of bed at 4:00 am and departed by car at 5:30.
The first flight took us to Philly with a short layover. We left the gate in Philly on time, but waited 1 hour on the runway to take off.
Once in the air, we had 7.5 hours to Venice. It was 9:30 am when we arrived.
5 Euros got us a bus from the airport to Mestre. I was struck by how each time we visit Italy, it feels more like home and less like an adventure.
We took a fast train to Verona and a slow train to Bolzano - price was 54 Euros for two. We both kept dozing off in the train and waking when the stops were announced. We passed through Trento and waved at friends Jennifer and Jeremy, who live there with their daughter, Greta.
When we stepped off the train in Bolzano, it was HOT - about 95 F and 35 C. We showered and changed into shorts at the Hotel Regina in our tiny but comfortably air-conditioned room. Then, we took a walk around town and finally saw the inside of the Duomo. We had a small cone of gelato each for 1 Euro. Then, we stopped off at the hotel to check in with Mom before going out for dinner.
We ate at La Torchia restaurant. I had a small beer, lots of water, a mixed salad and a pizza with white asparagus, prosciutto and egg. Yum! We finished off with espresso, which only served to keep me awake until 8:30 pm, when I drifted out of my miserable jet lag and into a deep slumber.
The day started a bit rough - my neck was really bothering me and Rick's back was stiff. We hobbled to breakfast, which was the usual well-serviced Italian fare. After a good doping with Naproxen and Benadryl, I was feeling better.
We dashed off early to catch a train to Ponte Gardena, followed by a bus ride to Selva di Gardena and a second bus to Canazei. We made all the connections and the journey cost 16 Euros. The bus navigating the hairpins of the Sella Pass was a bit scary, but we made it in one piece.
It was lightly raining when we arrived in Canazei. We quickly located the bike shop and inquired about rental for Friday. The guy said he had plenty of availability, so it was no problem. We found the Hotel Astoria and then went for a lunch break. The first stop only had drinks, so we had a capucchino and then moved on to a pizzeria. We enjoyed beer - I had a birra rosso - a red ale. I also had gnocchi with gorgonzola and walnuts. Rick had a pizza.
After lunch, we checked into the hotel. We had been assigned a massive suite - yay! It was a nice change from the prior night. We indulged in a short nap and then enquired about a short hike. The front desk recommended a short hike along the river. I also saw a walk up the lower part of Col Rodella to a waterfall. We huffed up about 350 meters in 1 km - but the view was spectacular! We were surrounded by wildflowers. We attempted to find a gentler route down, but alas, could not. So, I crept my way down the hill inch-by-inch and taking twice as long as the ascent. After descending, we walked along the river to Gries and back to the hotel.
The late afternoon featured bathing and laundry. We were to be in the bar at 19:30 for a "special dinner". I threw a scarf on with my hiking pants to spruce myself up. They served appetizers and a proseco sangria. Then, dinner featured 5 courses with a nice Terolodego. The menu was a potato tart stuffed with spinach in a cream/cheese sauce, celery and gorgonzola soup, risotto with apples, and lamb encrusted with croutons and artichoke. Dessert was a frozen white chocolate mousse with berry sauce. We rolled upstairs to bed at 22:30, just as twilight was ending.
This has truly got to be one of the most beautiful places on Earth! We started the day with a good breakfast at the hotel - with more than enough to eat - especially with the 5 courses of the night before sitting in the gut.
After breakfast, we dressed for cycling and headed up to the bike shop. We got set up on a Felt (me) and Fondriest (Rick). They were both 52cm - small but workable. After signing all the paperwork, we headed out for our journey around the Sella Ronda.
The first hurdle was to climb 8km out of Canazei to the start of the ring. We decided to ride counter-clockwise, as that is supposed to have the best views. So, after making the first 8km, we headed up to the right and Passo Pordoi. I rode well within my limits - knowing it was going to be a long day. I rode zone 2 up - allowing the racer boys happily to pass me. As we approached the top, we had 360 degree views of the Sella Massif and Sasso Piato/Sasso Longo. We had a short water break at the top and descended to Arabba. The descent from Pordoi isn't that great - especially with lots of opposing traffic. In Arabba, we stopped at a bar and had apple streudel with vanilla sauce and got our bottles topped off.
The next pass was Passo Campolongo - a repeat from our 2004 trip. It was pretty warm, and I was starting to question my wool base layer, but not warm enough to remove it. The descent from Campolongo was fun and fast. As we dropped into Val Badia, there were lots of clouds forming and cooler temps. I was again happy to have the base layer. We didn't take many photos, because the overcast made the light not very dramatic. Instead, we headed right into Passo Gardena climb. I pushed the pace a bit more on that one and actually passed a few folks. I did blow up a little near the top and had to back off.
We stoped at the Rifugio at the top for lunch (as we had 7 years prior for streudel). I ordered spaghetti carbonara and Rick ordered wursten and pommes frites. We ordered mineral water as well (no beer - needed to hydrate!). The spaghetti tasted great, but wasn't sitting well. Ugh.
The poor digestion made the last climb up Sella Pass a bit painful. Fortunately, I had a lovely view to take the edge off the pain. The final descent to town sucked, as I knew it would, on a very crowded, narrow and poor-condition road. At one point, we got backed up behind a tiny utility vehicle, but he was just fast enough that we didn't want to pass. But, on hairpin, five cars tried to squeeze up, but could not pass him - typical weekend mountain drivers! So, we let them pass and then sat behind five cars behind the utility vehicle.
After returning the bikes, I got to work on stretching my back and tending the saddle sores brought on by too many hours on an ill-fitting bike. The stretching helped a lot, and kept my back from getting into spasms. Rick did the laundry while I took a snooze, for recovery :). I did offer to do the laundry, but he refused!
For dinner, we had pre-ordered in the morning. We got a bottle of Marzemino, another local wine that many around us had been ordering. I had a local soup with barley and carrots/celery to start. Then, the second course was a pasta stuffed with brie and favas, topped with asparagus. Rick had a "large macaroni" with octopus ragu. We did halvsies/sharsies on that one. Then for the main course, I had bass with potatoes and olives. The had cooked the whole fish with lemon slices and a boquet of rosemary inside. I had some challenge eating the whole fish and boning it, but it was delicious! Rick had a "rustic chicken" also with potatoes, which was great. We finished off with a coconut cake made with a cornmeal base. Mmmmmm.
I got my first full, good night of sleep - starting at 9:30 pm - before it was even dark.
We had a lazy day on Saturday - starting with a leisurely breakfast. After breakfast, I arranged for a massage at 17:00 before heading out for a stroll. We headed east out of Canazei, walking along a river path, through the town of Alba-Delba and on to Penia - tiny Ladin village. I found a big slide in Penia in the river park and had a fun zip down it. We continued up Passo Fedaia, looking for a scenic route to loop back to Penia. After a few unsuccessful attempts, we just walked on the road to head back to town and too the upper road through the center of town for some photo opportunities of the church and homes.
We had a brief stop in Bar Penia for a couple cappucchini and some water. Then, we walked back to Canazei using the other side of the river. We arrived back around 14:00. The afternoon was spent reading and napping. I went down from my massage at 17:00 and enjoyed a good rubdown. We made a call to my parents at 18:30, but caught my dad out running errands. He agreed to call us back around 21:00 after dinner.
For dinner, I had a soup with egg, bread crumbs and parmesan extruded into a noodle shape. My pasta course was penne arrabiata. We both had venison with polenta for the main course. I had gelato - chocolate, vanilla and nocciola for dessert. I was stuffed! We finished off the last of our Marzemino from the night before. After talking with my parents for a few minutes, we retired around 22:00. Ahhhhh.
We left the Hotel Astoria around 9:00 and walked the 3km down to Campitello to catch the cable car to Col Rodella. We caught the 9:30 car and in 5 minutes had ascended the 1000 meters - ears popping the whole way. The views from the top were pretty amazing - a 360 degree tapestry of rock formations. We started down the first set of tornati, where I crept slowly along the gradient. Then, we started our long slide around the edge of Sasso Piato. It was a pretty busy trail for the first few hours until we reached the Rifugio Sasso Piato for lunch. The Rifugio was hopping with customers by 12:15 when we got seats. We both ordered some pasta (which came in massive quantities). We also had water and shared a beer - me having a capucchino for warmth.
As we headed out, there was a blustery wind blowing. But, as we headed around the back of Sasso Piato, we came out of the wind and into a beautiful field of wildflowers. We enjoyed that for an hour or so, then started a descent to the trail heading up to the Rifugio Vicenza (aka Longkofelhutte).
The last hour to the rifugio was fairly miserable over scree. Then, we had to cross an ice field with severe vertical exposure. I was not a happy camper, but made it across on my 2nd attempt. After that remained a long slog up a very steep grade to the hut where we plopped down pooped. We were assigned private bunk room #3 for the night. We had dinner with the 6 other guests - a French couple, a father and son from Milano, and two German guys. The staff seemed mostly Slavic. So, it was a strange mixture of languages circling the room. Strangely enough, English was being used as a common language between groups.
After dinner, we watched True Grit on the iPad until the shockingly beautiful sunset at 21:30. We snuggled up for the night on the bottom bunk so we could stay warm.
We first woke up just after 4:30 due to the light. We were abel to fall back asleep until about 7:00. We packed our stuff and got dressed for the day. At 7:30, we joined the rest fo the folks for a breakfast of bread and jam and instant coffee. I think it was the only "bad" meal I've had in Italy thus far. We paid our bill and headed out on our course for the day, taking us around Sasso Longo.
The first descent wasn't too bad - just a bit slow. Then, we had a rather terrifying ascent up some rocky, high steps with lots of vertical exposure. After making it over that saddle, there was nothing particularly scary - just lots of awkward footing over boulders and roots - and a lot of small ups and downs. The scenery was lovely and full of wildflowers again.
We slowly descended to a meadow filled with a cacophony of cowbells and mooing. At one point 4 cows completely blocked the trail - forcing us to take an uphill detour. We had one final, steep ascent to Rifugio Comici where we had a lunch break. I had some of the local potato and cheese dumplings on leeks and cream. It was rich and tasty. After lunch, we had a long descent, basically following a ski run to Plan di Gralba where we caught the first afternoon bus to Colfosco and the Hotel Capella.
We had some major self cleaning and laundry cleaning to do before even thinking about dinner. We ended up at a pizzeria for dinner. I had a pizza with just about everything you can imagine, and Rick had an omelette. I did well enough ordering the drinks in German that the waitress actually thought we were German-speaking - woo hoo!
We decide to modify our route today - given that routes with significant descending are taking me about 50% longer than the projected time. The route through Puez-Odle behind Sassongher was predicted as 6:45. Worried it might take us 9-10 hours, we opted for Col Pradat, which climbed about to the same height, but passed through a forested area in front of Sassongher. We then descended a path to the Corvara area.
We had a lovely lunch. I had a mixed bruschetta plate and we shared a half-liter of white wine. Then, we took the 1 hour walk along the river to La Villa, where our hotel awaited. The hike today was fabulous, with sweeping views of the Sella Massif, Sassongher and Sass Ciampac. We were surrounded by wildflowers and butterflies the whole way. We even found our first snake in the forest, which I nearly speared with my walking stick. Doh!
We arrived at Hotel Dolomiti around 15:30. We bathed, did laundry, read and spoke with my parents, who were driving toward Washington for a vacation. I happened to catch them at a rest stop, so we had a nice chat. Dinner was at the hotel. We had crepes with asparagus and a tomato sauce. I had an omelette and Rick had veal burgers. I had gelato sorbet for dessert. It was a much more modest meal than what we were getting at the Hotel Astoria last week.
We decided to modify our route again today. Instead of going over the Forcella Medesc from La Villa, which was basically straight up the side of a mountain on scree, we decided to take a bus to San Cassiano and head up Col di Loccia. The climb was steep, but had a handrail the whole way up, and was wide. We had sweeping views of the Sella Massif in the distance and the tip of Sassongher. Eventually, the Marmolada also came into view.
We stopped in a flowered meadow a few tornati from the top of the pass and ate the bread and cheese lunch we had purchased in San Cassiano at the market.
We also enjoyed some cookies made of nuts and dried fruit with the back side iced in chocolate. Yum! We came over the pass about on schedule and then started a rolling trip along a high altiplano through the Fanes. We kept getting stellar views of the rock formations. We must have stopped a hundred times to take pictures, as each bend in the trail revealed ever different vistas.
We meandered through a herd of docile heifers grazing in the hight meadows and drinking from the clear stream. As we got close to our destination, we came across a medical barrack from World War I for the Italian army. Around the next corner, we found a small alpine lake and finally descended to the valley containing the Rifugio Fanes and Lavarella and a few houses and church.
The rifugio offered us beers on the deck, so we took advantage before checking in - enjoying a nice chat with a guy from Atlanta - the first American we'd met since leaving the airport in Venice. We were given a room with two twin beds and a nice sink with hot water and towels. Woo hoo! Almost a full bath was had by dinner time. For dinner, we had goulash soup, salad, and a quiche with red & yellow bell peppers and mashed potatoes. We were seated at a table with two Danish couples, and had some nice conversation about life there.
There was a lovely sunset over the valley as we retired to our room to watch Love and Other Drugs on the iPad.
We headed out of Ucia Fanes and back up the hill we had descended the prior afternoon. It was still sunny, but clouds were starting to obscure the peaks all around us. We turned off and headed down Route 10 toward Val di Fanes. We couldn't see much of the mountains in the weather, but we did quite enjoy the river, wildflowers and plentiful marmots in the high plain.
We descended into a forest and the walk became a bit monotonous with steady downhill grade on a very loose, rocky surface. The walking was slow and fatiguing. We finally entered the lower part of the gorge and came across a lot of day hikers as we approached Fiames/Cortina d'Ampezzo.
It started raining and we took an unnecessary up/down diversion. Finally, we exited the national park and found the sign pointing to Albergo Fiames. A couple more km slog and we arrived - fortunately with an hour to spare before lunch service ended. I had a tortellini with prosciutto and Rick had a polenta with sausage. We watched the rain coming down rather hard and were thankful for having arrived in time to avoid it! I was so happy to be off my very sore feet. The rocky terrain is quite a lot on my lightweight trail runners.
The afternoon was passed washing, napping, watching Le Tour and doing laundry, which had become quite plentiful. We ate at the hotel for dinner, however there was no half board as promised. We ordered a la carte, which ended up positive by 10 Euros in our favor. I had an insalatone (a big salad) with veggies, egg and tuna. We had the house red wine to drink. I then collapsed after watching a stage of the Giro Donne, into a deep sleep. I was so tired that I slept through the massive thunder that rolled all night.
When I woke up, my feet felt like they could manage, so we prepared to walk. Two pairs of my socks were still wet, so we had to put them in the backpack as-is. We headed up from the hotel to find the railroad bed that had been turned into a trail. We hit what we thought was the trail after only 5 minutes of uphill. But, that dead-ended. So we tried another road which also dead-ended. Finally, we back-tracked and found another 10 minutes of uphill was required from where we had turned off.
Once on our way, we made good time. There was one section covered by scree and two tunnels that were slow, but otherwise we were booking - on pace to arrive 2 hours ahead of the bus. We caught occasional views through the lifting clouds and down the gorges. We stopped and read all the historical information. Passing us for several miles was a VBT cycle tour, so we chatted with them as they passed.
We arrived in Cimabanque 2 hours ahead, only to find an abandoned military outpost, and no BBQ as had been promised in our book. We decided to head 4 km up to the next town to see if we could find food. We were happily surprised to find the BBQ and another bus stop about 2km down the road at the "Passo Cimabanque". Yay! We enjoyed carbonara, grilled chicken, tiramisu, coffee and beers - along with the requisite mineral water.
The bus rolled up at 13:25 - right on time. Just after we boarded, rain started falling again. Another excellent timing! A short, 20 minute ride had us in Dobiacco/Toblach. It didn't take us long to find the Hotel Tschurtschenthaler. After cleaning up and hanging socks out to dry, we headed for a walk around town. I wanted to see the town and find a "Dolomiti" sweatshirt like I had seen at the Passo Gardena. We struck out on that, but did find a cute girlie T shirt for 15 Euros, which was made in Cortina.
We strolled and too pictures of the church, then headed back to the hotel for some rest before dinner. At 18:00, we headed out to Pizzeria Hans. I had a pizza Italia, which basically had a ton of arugula and tomatoes on top. That was great, and I got my veggies, too!
We shared a bottle of Sudtiroler Edelvernatsch, which was a light red wine that was pretty tasty. Then, the waiter brought us some limoncella after that. So, it was a bit of a stumble down to the train station to check on tickets. We were unable to purchase from the machine with the 50 Euro note I had, and the card reader was broken, but we did at least get the schedule nailed down. We ambled back though the MTBers getting ready for Dolomiti Superbike and managed to get the wireless password from the front desk on our way to the room.
I spent the next hour deleting 200+ email messages - only 8-10 were personal messages and only 3 needed response. So, I took care of that. After email, I ddi some reading before nodding off for the night.
I woke up just before 5:00 with a lot of light streaming through the windows and the smell of freshly baking bread on the street below. It was an effort to go back to sleep for another hour or so. After breakfast, we lazed around for a bit before heading for the 9:55 train. We had a really nice train to Fortezza, then switched to a typical Trenitalia regional train to Bolzano. We had 30 minutes in Bolzano so got a bathroom break and shared a panino con prosciutto e rucola with chips and Coke Zeros.
We got on the Verona-bound train, but realized subsequently that we should have taken the Bologna train, which would have arrived 30 minutes sooner. In any case, I enjoyed the chance to read "Girl with the Dragon Tatoo". We arrived in Verona around 15:00. We got a map and started wandering. We went in the wrong gate. But, and English-speaker in Blockbuster Video got us straightened out.
We staggered into the hotel 30 minutes later, dripping with sweat due to the moderately warm and humid weather. We watched the end of the Tour coverage and talked with my parents. Then, a bit after 17:00, we headed out. We walked past and old church where a wedding was taking place, then through the old Citadel/bridge, then on to the coliseum. We had dinner in view of the coliseum - both having Caprese salad with buffala mozarella. I had spaghetti vongole. It was great until we had to wait 30 minutes for the check!
We stopped for gelato on the way back. I had malaga and liquoriza. Then, we staggered back to the hotel for the night. I finally had a cold shower to cool down a bit.
We awoke and started the day with breakfast and Maratona coverage on TV. I got to enjoy the Dolomit from afar. It is a beautiful day up there! I'm already missing it. We left around 9:00 and went to the train station. We found a 9:18 local train that would arrive at 10:45. It was only 20 minutes slower than the Eurostar and cost 1/3 as much. So, that's what we booked. It was quite crowded and we could not get seats together. But, eventually we both had seats.
When we arrived in Mestre, we bought our bus tickets for Monday. Then, we tried to check into the hotel. Just our luck, we were able to check in to the biggest room on the 6th floor. We hung out for a while in the air-conditioning. We went to look for lunch around 12:30. The town was mostly shuddered up, as it was Sunday. But, we did find an outdoor cafe. I had insalata mista and french fries - they were great - and a beer, of course! After lunch, we lounged around all afternoon reading, napping and printing out our boarding passes on the Internet. At 19:00, we walked to Il Piron d'Oro - a restaurant where we ate 7 years ago.
I had grilled vegetables and risotto in shrimp sauce. It was a really good risotto - very rich. After dinner, we decided to go into Venice proper. We bought our 1.05 Euro tickets and hopped on the train. We arrived about 20:50. We wandered around the Santa Croce and San Paolo neighborhoods - enjoying the dusk and trying to escape the crowds. We found a quiet back street with a gelateria and loaded up for 2.10 Euros each. I had limone and "tutto bosco" flavors. We wandered back to the Grand Canal via a different route and caught a couple of snaps facing west toward the sunset sky. We caught a 22:04 train back to Mestre - a very sweaty train. Then, we enjoyed a quick rinse and plummet into the cool sheets for the night.
We started our journey home at 8:45 am at the bus terminal. We got quite the checkin runaround at the airport. But, we finally got on the flight. The first flight was good. We had Internet access in Philly, which was great. But, after we got loaded up, we were told that we had to be delayed for 2.5 hours due to low fog in SF and thunderstorms in Pittsburg. We were de-planed and reboarded at 19:15. I met a woman from Spain, Mila, at the airport, who needed help understanding everything. She is a chemist coming to SF for two weeks of language study with her brother. She was very sweet. I help her to get dinner before leaving the airport. She wanted us to sit down and enjoy the meal, but I had to explain there was not time :(. She wanted to know why there wasn't a meal served on the plane. I tried to explain the nuance of our airline fee structures, but alas my Spanish skills were lacking.
We landed around 23:00 and arrived home around 1:00 am. It was hard to believe that 36 hours prior we were walking around Venice licking our gelato cones. :) Arrivaderci Italia! I hope to return soon.