The Mighty Dolomites

Saturday 30th June

Saw these hang gliders from our bedroom window this morning.

Moving on today into the heart of the Dolomites in northeastern Italy. Rob had found some tourist advice online about the drive from Bolzano to Cortina along a scenic route that went up and over some of the mountain passes. We (he) decided to take this route, rather than just down the main drag. I wasn't so keen as these mountain roads and oncoming traffic give me the heebie-jeebies.

Not to be deterred we set off, straight up the main road to Bolzano, then we had to figure out just where the instructions started from - they were a bit vague in places and I'm not sure how old they were, but the first roundabout didn't exist so it was a bit of a guess to get us started.

Well the drive was certainly spectacular scenery. I'm not sure how many mountain passes we went over but it was somewhere between 4 and 6, and they varied in height. As you started the climb there was a sign telling you how many hairpins (tornantes) to the top, and then at the top, how many on the descent. One of the passes had 27 on the way up and 35 on the way down. Another had 29 up and 30something down. I said to Rob that he was getting more turns today than the guys at the hillclimb. Our poor little 3 cylinder peugeot 208 had a hard day today - a lot of 1st gear hairpins. There is absolutely no go down low in 2nd gear.

We saw these vespas in Trento yesterday, and here they were at Lago di Carezza when we stopped.
They have this tourist attraction well set up - there is a car park on the opposite side of the road (paid parking) and then an underpass to the lake, and a nice snack bar for coffee and strudel. We are close to Austria and starting to see the German influence in the food, also in the signs.

Mind blowing scenery.

Lago di Carezza - 1520m.
Yes, it really was this green colour, and blue, and gold. Beautiful!

Sculpture in the town of Campitello di Fassa where we stopped for lunch.
Rob had goulash which was yummy, and I had a chicken schnitzel burger
which was really nice with a lovely chicken breast.

One view of some of the mountains from the town.
Everywhere you turned there was a photo waiting to be taken.

Another sculpture in the town.

We have hundreds of photos of the Dolomites to choose from.
Here are just a few.

Scary thing is the cars coming the other way and using all the road - and they don't like to move off the centre. The motorbikes are a bit more thoughtful but you have to watch for the pushbikes coming downhill taking the quickest line through the corner. The buses are probably the most considerate though everyone gives them the space they need to negotiate the hairpin. Getting stuck behind a bus on the way up, when he stopped at the top to unload and let the tourists take photos, we stopped for a quick break and got away before him.

We kept remarking just how many cars and people there were at all the scenic points. It is Saturday so maybe it's drive day, but there still seemed to be hundreds. Our trip notes said the drive could take 4+ hours if the roads were busy - well it took 6+ hours to do 120k. Yikes!