Italian Dolomites

We left Toronto Friday evening on a redeye flight to Venice, Italy. The trip was planned to land in Venice, then drive up to the Dolomites region, Val Gardena, for 5 days, then back to Venice.

The flight to Venice was full, and I couldn't sit with Zoe. The flight was pretty cold, and I couldn't get much sleep on the flight. We managed to land an hour earlier than planned and got to check into our hotel right at 13:00. We stayed in a nice boutique hotel, Leonard Hotel in Venice Mestre; it's brand new, and I'm familiar with the franchise in the UK. It's right by the train station to Venice proper, and was significantly cheaper than anything there.

We took the train into Venice St. Lucia station (1.30EU) after settling in. I have been to Venice a few times now, once during Carnival, but it was a first for Zoe. Venice is really pretty as a city. There's canals and bridges everywhere and surrounded by colourful buildings. We walked along the canals, visiting shops, and gelateria. Our plan for the day was to make it to San Marco square, but with the red-eye flight Zoe got tired and only made it slightly past the Rialto bridge. We went to a local watering hole for some strong Aperol Spritz and crostinis.

We woke up relatively early the following day to go to Venice so that we could make it to San Marco square. We took the scenic route to get there and stopped at nice cafes for an espresso and pastries. We found a really local one where they had a really good spread of pastries that were all just 1.40EU. We snacked all morning; we found a place that sold nice tiramisu and another place to get crostinis (this place heated them up, which made them much better). We eventually made our way to San Marco square, but we didn't stay long. We wanted to go into the cathedral but the line was long and opted to not stand in the heat to get in.

The day was particularly busy because the day was the annual Rialto Regatta festival. We found a spot on the southern bridge over the Grand Canal, but after waiting 30 minutes in the sun, the police came by and kicked us off. I was annoyed that they let us stand there for 30 minutes before saying anything (they were there the entire time we were there and told people to not sit on the bridge). We had to move to a small dock between buildings, which didn't give as nice of a view. The Regatta was nice to see with a lot of gondolas dressed up in traditional garments, and lots of boats going down the canal.

We left the Grand Canal shortly after it started and went for dinner at a nice restaurant Zoe found. We didn't make a reservation, but they said we could sit down if we left in an hour. For dinner I got squid ink spaghetti, and Zoe got seafood stew. They were both really good with a lot of flavour. We also tried to get a stuffed-squid, but unfortunately they ran out.

We wandered around town at night taking pictures after dinner. We went to the southern tip of Venice by Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute. I was pretty exhausted by the end of that day; the combination of heat, walking (22 km according to my watch) and snacking on sweets all morning started to take a toll. We went back to the hotel shortly after and started to prepare for traveling to the Dolomites.

During the planning phase of our trip, we found out that if we rented from Avis.com vs Avis.ca we could get a cheaper price; odd but it is what it is. We picked up our car that day and said that we didn't need to bring the car back at the specified return time since we already paid for a full day. Their return instructions were a bit confusing since we had to return it on the 6th floor of a parking lot down the street, then drop off the keys in some other location. They gave us an Audi Q2, which is probably the biggest car I've ever rented. We only got that car because it was one of the few automatic cars they had. We picked up some groceries before we headed out at the local supermarket, then set off for the Dolomites.

it was rainy that day so it wasn't much of an adventurous day. We drove up the A27, which is a toll route (8 eu) but we got to drive as fast as we wanted; I hit 180 km/hr :) We got to our hotel at Resident Merk a bit early. The helpers showed us the wrong room originally, and we had to get them get the manager out who gave us the proper room. We got a 4 person room with a kitchen, which probably caused the original confusion. We called it in pretty early that night since the next day we planned to catch the sunrise.

In retrospect, I screwed up a lot of the planning in the Dolomites. We ended up driving a lot more than we should have because we found the hikes we wanted to do after we found places to stay. And despite the trailhead distances from the hotels weren't too far (~20km away), it did not reflect how long it took to drive the trailheads.

We woke up at 4:30am to do our hike at Croda Da Lago hoping to get there by sunrise and do the hike. In retrospect we should of got up later, and got pictures at the summit of Passo Gardena. The beginning of the hike starts in the forest with a steady climb up until you are roughly above the treeline. We ended up doing the hike clockwise, which brought us to the rifugio by the lake first. The rifugio wasn't open when we got there, so we marched on passed the lake and into a small pass between the mountains. The view was gorgeous; it was like a set for Lord of the Ring. As we climbed further up, we saw a flock of sheep that was being herded up the pass and into the nearby pasture. We tried to catch up to them but they climbed faster than we could hike. When we got to the top of the pass, we were both quite pooped.

I think the hard part of the hike was the way down; it was more steep and through a rockfield. I got a blister on my pinky toe that started to bleed, and Zoe's quads started to get shaky; it made going down slower. I ended up taping my toe because I couldn't take the pain anymore. As we got past the rockfield, I also took the wrong path and ended up getting us lost. We ended up going down a dried river bed that seemed like the path because I'm an idiot. Luckily, my GPS watch saved us and navigated us back onto the path.

When we got back, we found out that driving in the Dolomites is a bit chaotic. On top of the hairpin turns, there's a constant stream of motorcyclist, cyclists and buses. The buses were the worst. With only a 2 lane (I'd say it's even a 1.5 lane), these buses would be within centimeters of your car. When we finally got back to the hotel, we took an afternoon nap. I made a pasta dinner with some meat and some weird italian dough ball. It was incredibly filling and kept the leftovers for breakfast. We went back into the city after dinner to pick up our via ferrata equipment and Zoe got a pair of real hiking boots. We went to Gran cir that evening to check out the hike and area. Zoe was chanting apple strudel since dinner, so we stopped at the rifugio at the top and got one; apparently it wasn't that good.

We started early again the next day to get to Gran Cir at sunrise. I wanted to summit it for sunrise, but I didn't plan for it accordingly (again). The hike to the trailhead was pretty rough. Not sure if it was the altitude or the previous hike at Croda da Lago, or a combination of both, but we struggled a bit to get to the trailhead. The trail starts at the rock field then continues up onto the mountain. There are two cable sections that is not overly exposed. Many people do the hike without any equipment, and for some sections I didn't bother with it either. We even saw parents take their kids on the hike (<5yrs). When we got to the top, the view was amazing; you had a clear 360 degree view of the surrounding area.

The hike down was especially tiring for Zoe. Her legs didn't fully recover from the previous hike, and her legs were shaking a lot. Originally, we considered doing the piccolo cir, which was right beside gran cir, but decided against it when we hiked by the trail head. We lounged around the city for a bit before returning the equipment. For some reason italy stores stop working from 1200-1500, so we wandered through the town window shopping and eating more sweets. We walked through a supermarket and Zoe found out there was a lot of variety of chocolates and liquor.

We moved to another hotel, Hotel San Giovanni, in another village just south of Val Gardena. It wasn't what I was expecting since it has no AC, nor did it have a door for a washroom; you had a clear line of sight to the shower stall. After settling in, we drove around to catch the sunset; the rocks turned pink/orange at sunset, making them look like they're on fire. We didn't really find a good spot to take a picture, but we did see the mountain range turn pink and orange and it was gorgeous. We had a late dinner at a bar, where Zoe got spinach spaetzle and I got a big pizza.

The next day we 'slept-in', until 0700 to try and get to Seceda Gondola at 0830. We had breakfast at the hotel, and drove to Ortisei. My planning wasn't the best due to all the driving back and forth; in the end it was a good idea that we got the car considering how we were traveling.

Seceda was beautiful, we hiked along the ridgeline then into the bowl to the other side where there's a small refugio. We got to see donkeys, cows, highland cows, sheep and horses. We saw one tourist kissing a donkey, and another baby being scared of a horse. She kept saying 'no no no no' and pulled down her hood while her Dad was moving towards the horse. We hiked the majority of the day then drove to Castelrotto and Siusei. There was a picture that Zoe showed me before the trip, and said she wanted to see towering mountains with rolling green hills. I found it. We drove back to Passo Sella to see sunset but there were clouds in the horizon. We ended up driving a lot that day since we couldn't figure out where we wanted to go for dinner. We went to a bar where Zoe got a huge steak; it was litterally the biggest I have ever seen in Europe.

I woke up at 0530 again trying for sunrise again, but it was raining that day. We drove around to see if there was anything at all, but we ended up staying in after a morning of searching. We went to a nearby town where we found a local festival. It turned out to be like a German beer tent similar to Oktoberfest (I tried describing it to other people before, but it's really something you need to experience). Zoe got schweinshaxe and I got 1/2 a chicken. Their service was incredibly fast; within 30s of ordering, food was at your table. The night was fun with live music, grappa, and local desserts.

The next day, we took the scenic route to drive back to Venice. The day was pretty cloudy and partially raining, so we couldn't see much. We drove through Passo Rolle, then through the Dolomite National Park. The National Park had a nice lake where we stopped and had lunch. In retrospect, we got pretty lucky with weather while we were in the Dolomites.

When we got to Venice, driving was confusing within the city; different road layouts, tram ways, one way streets, etc. We missed our exit a few times, and drove around in circles trying to find a gas station. The car rental return was a bit weird where you drive the car into a car park, and you drop off the keys in another location. We saw another couple confused with the car rental, so it wasn't just us. We checked into the Stay City apartments, which was just across our first hotel. It was also brand new (opened in August).

In our last day, we went into Venice one last time to do some shopping. Zoe picked up some souvenirs, and I tried to get some last pictures on the Rialto bridge. It was crowded, and I had my tripod on my back, and I accidently hit Zoe's head when turning around :( We went to another local spot that Zoe found for dinner. It looked closed the first time we walked by it, but it was suddenly open. I thoguht the pasta was quite nice, but Zoe was disappointed in the meal. She wanted spaghetti, which she compromised for penne because it came with shrimp. But her expectations were the big tiger shrimps, which is not the size of the mediterranean shrimps. We tried making it up by getting Pizza, but the first pizza place burnt the slize, and the other one was overly salty. Ah well, it happens when exploring.

The trip went by fast but we both want to come back again. We heard the Dolomites are good to visit year round. A winter trip might be nice? :) Italy has a lot of culture and history as well as good food to offer. And the mountains were accessible and breathtakingly beautiful. We said our goodbyes to Italy and hopped on the plane home the next day. It was a good trip.