May 3-4, 2018 - A Tour of Italy with the Griners - The Dolomites

After Venice it was time to head into the mountains!  Between the Alps and the Dolomites, Italy has some of the most beautiful mountains in the world!  We didn't have time to check out the Alps on this trip, but we gloried in the Dolomites!  They are spectacular!  We were completely overloaded with beautiful vistas and fabulous little towns tucked among craggy peaks in every direction.  We spent two full days in the Dolomites.  Here's a map of our trek on the first day (Notice we popped over to Austria for just a few minutes, just so we could say we did.).

In 2000, we came to this area with Heather's parents and her sister, Heidi, on a genealogical expedition.  Before coming to America, Heather's father's ancestors lived in this region of the Dolomites, primarily in the villages of Vinigo, Peaio, and Vodo di Cadore.  In 2000, we were able to talk with a priest in Vodo di Cadore who showed us and made photocopies of records of Heather's ancestors dating back to the 1500s.  After a delicious lunch of yummy bread, cheeses, meats, olives, etc. in front of one of the most beautiful views we have ever seen, we visited Vinigo, Peaio, and Vodo di Cadore again.  They are so beautiful!

This is the Vinigo church where Heather's ancestors attended and were likely baptized and married.

Vinigo is awfully quaint.  It's not hard to imagine Heather's ancestors tilling the soil here.  We stopped and talked to this man for a bit to see if he knew anyone with the last name Zardus (Heather's maiden name).  He knew of one from Peaio who no longer lived there.  He was quite the character, as you can probably tell.  While we were talking to him, Derek caught another character.

The Peaio church above, and the Vodo di Cadore church below.

We couldn't get enough of these beautiful little towns!

The man who owned the home where we stayed near Venice recommended that we see Passo Giau.  It did not disappoint, and of course Derek and Mark had to run up to the top.  Hannah decided to join them.  The snow was just hard enough to stay on top...most of the time.

Derek is pictured above, and Mark and Hannah are pictured below.  It was a fabulous view.  While they were up there a storm blew in within what seemed like a few minutes.  Unfortunately, Mark had the car keys in his pocket to everyone got pretty wet and wind-blown until everyone could run back to the car.  It turned into a bit of an adventure in that running down the hill put more pressure on the snow and frequently ended up with legs post-holing into the snow up to the hip.

A short drive and we were out of the snow and back into the green.

We also stopped by Misurina to see this oft-photographed lake.  We were surprised to find it so iced over.

The little chapel below used to be surrounded by a small town. The rest of the area was destroyed by bombs during WWII. The chapel was all that survived, and it still does so today.

After seeing the Tre Cime from a distance, we arrived at our apartment for the night in Tesido, which is very near the Austrian border.  The apartment was luxurious and beautiful, on a dairy in the Dolomites.

We haven't talked about this previously, but every apartment we have stayed or been in in Italy has had some sort of bidet.  We have come to appreciate them.

Though Heather and Hannah liked the apartment, they loved the animals on the farm and spent plenty of time talking to and snuggling with them. The Italians have really figured out how great solar power is, and we have seen it all over the country, even here, up in the mountains.

After settling into the apartment, we decided to take a quick drive into Austria.  It just seemed like a shame to be so close and not go.  We ended up having a delicious dinner very near the border.  The smoked salmon and arugula pizza that Mark and Derek both had was superb!

We spent the next day driving through and exploring more of the Dolomites between Tesido and Campodenno.  Here's a map that shows our basic path, without a few detours and side trips we ended up taking.

Tired of being stuck in a car while passing so many beautiful places that needed to be explored on foot, we couldn't resist exploring this waterfall for a while.

The scenery continued to be spectacular, though it was often obscured by low clouds, and we got rained on some.  This didn't stop Jaclyn from going to great lengths to get just the shot she wanted.

As you may have determined already, we did not have a bad apartment on this trip.  We loved the places we got to stay, and they were quite inexpensive through AirBnB or HomeAway.

After getting settled into our apartment, we found an out-of-the-way, family-run restaurant that served traditional Trentino (the name of the region) food primarily to locals.  It was a fun cultural experience as the family members explained each course and how to eat as those from the Trentino region do.

ADDENDUM:

This has little to do with our trip, but we feel that it is important at this point to pause and note a serious problem the Griners have.  We have now traveled with them every year for the past five.  Though we love traveling with them, it has come to our attention that they have a fairly strong narcissistic streak and love seeing their own image.  When asked to take a picture of someone, most people just comply and take the picture.  It has become abundantly clear that the Griners are incapable of doing this simple task without also taking a picture of themselves.  With the briefest of cursory looks of just the last two years' trips, we were able to assemble the following, substantial collection of selfie shots the Griners took while being asked to take pictures of us.  This sizeable collection does not include the MANY selfie shots we erased.  They have a SERIOUS problem, and we feel that public shaming may be the only way to begin curbing it.  Please join us in helping the Griners overcome this problem!!!!