Day 4 - Dolomites

Today we had a day trip to the Dolomites; the mountain range north of Venice on the border of Austria. We met our guide and our fellow travelers (a married couple from DC & a man & his uncle from Singapore) at the Trochetto ferry station at 9 am, and were on the road shortly after. What a difference only 100 km can make! In no time at all, we were surrounded by stunning mountains and charming little Bavarian towns. If I didn't know that we were in Italy, I would have guessed we were in Austria or Switzerland. In fact, many of the folks we encountered were speaking German.

We made several stops along the way to take photos, hear about the local lore, and, of course, to eat! Our first stop was in a quaint little town that was the birthplace of Tiziano (Titan), a well-known 16th century Venetian artist. The home he was born in (about 1490) is still standing...


Today, Pieve di Cadore is known for making approximately 90% of the designer eye and sunglasses in Italy. Names like Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, and Armani glasses are made in this sleepy little town.

From Cadore it was onward & upward towards the top of the mountains. On the way, we stopped at a few scenic vistas for photos, each more stunning than the next!



We stopped for lunch just shy of the height of the mountain range that you can reach via car. It was a cute little chalet-style place with this view...


We got inside and not one of the staff spoke any English. No worries - we had a good time using charades to ask questions about the menu and place our order. I had some sort of semolina and sausage balls in a broth. Andrew had pasta in ragu sauce, also made with the same sausage that they made on site (along with several different kinds of cheese).

Photo in the parking lot of the restaurant after lunch.

A short 5 minute drive from our lunch stop and we reach the "top" of the mountain. We are at about 6,000 feet and a mere 20 km from the Austrian border. We had time to hike around a bit, which was difficult at that altitude. We both commented on how fast our hearts had to beat to keep things oxygenated after only a 10 minute hike! The view was definitely worth it, though...

Last stop on our tour was Cortina, sort of the Italian version of Vail. Our guide tells us that "anyone who is anyone" is there in the winter to ski and be seen. At this time of year, however, it's as quiet and as adorable as can be. Seriously, who wouldn't want to live here?! I would not have been surprised to see Heidi or the Von Trapp family wander by!

This statue is in one of the piazzas in Cortina. I thought I would post it as my "after" picture for when we're finished this trip - too much good food to be had!

We made it back to Venice about 6:15 pm and grabbed the vaporetto (water bus) back to our hotel. We had just enough time to grab a quick bite to eat (thank goodness I bought some cheese at that little restaurant in the Dolomites), and run back out to the Rialto bridge area to meet for our "Legends and Ghosts of Venice" tour. The tour ended up being about a 90 minute walking tour with a young guide who was born and raised in Venice. She took us to about a dozen different bridges and buildings that have either verifiable or folklore stories about murders, ghosts or superstitions associated with them. It was very enjoyable and we saw several places we had not yet seen on our hours and hours of wandering Venice on our own. Notable was the church below, which was built in the 9th century, and is still used today. It's really quite awesome how old things are here, and how well preserved.

Our guide was also able to answer many of the questions that we had about Venice architecture and history. For example, we learned that the water around Venice is fairly shallow, only about 2 meters, so the buildings are sitting on thousands of wooden footers that have to be replaced "from time to time". We also asked what happened to all the cats that Venice was overrun with and famous for (Michelle - we finally did see two cats on this particular walk, but those were the first two we have seen since we've been here). She told us that about 10 years ago, they just "disappeared" and the Venetians were very sad about it. I didn't say so but suspect the population was reaching some sort of epidemic proportion and the city decided that some poison wouldn't go awry. I can't imagine thousands of cats "disappearing" in a matter of a few months otherwise. We also learned some interesting information about how the streets were named, for the activity common on them at the time (for example "beggar's street" or "mute street") , rather than for location. This certainly helps make some sense of the "non-sensical" themes we've encountered.

So, we're back in our room for the night and it's almost 11 pm here - very late for us! Andrew is already sleeping and I am having a glass of wine while I type this post. The weather has warmed up a bit so we are able to have the window open again tonight. I enjoy hearing the people go by, speaking in their lilting Italian. Tomorrow morning we check out of our B&B, and take our luggage to a storage facility. We can board the ship sometime in the afternoon, but it doesn't set sail until Thursday at 1 pm. If the weather holds (rain is currently forecast), we're planning to take the vaporetto to San Michele/Cemetery Island, Murano & Burano before we board the ship tomorrow in the late afternoon/early evening. See you then...