Verona

The "Pink" Arena

Restaurant

The Town's Piazza

A Typical Medieval Building

The Land of Castles

All the Hills Here Are Terraced and Lush

The Dolomites

Day 3
To the Dolomites

After breakfast we loaded up our bus and headed to our lunch spot of Verona, the town immortalized as Shakespeare's setting for Romeo and Juliet.

Verona is an interesting town, I can see the appeal. Part of the town is Roman and part of it is Medieval. It's neat to walk past a beautiful Roman pink arena (yes, pink - pale pink) and down a Roman style street then suddenly find myself in a city square from Medieval times.

We went to a restaurant recommended by Ferdi. It was also a wine bar. Bottles of wine, some looking very aged lined the walls. The wood paneled rooms looked ancient almost with large dark wooden beams on the ceiling. There were frescoes between the beams that reminded me of the ones in the breakfast room at our Veranna hotel. Was I in for a surprise. I thought the setting was full of appeal but the food was amazing! I had the pasta with duck sauce that Ferdi had been talking about. Divine!

What I really love about Italian cuisine is that dishes are typically made fresh with only a few high quality ingredients. The pasta is the specialty and the sauce is just to enhance it. I feel that North American cuisine can sometimes be all about the spices. This leads me to wonder if we feel we need to add all these flavors because our main ingredients need the extra taste boost. Not here, a foody's paradise!

Back to the bus and up and up we went to the Alpi di Suisi. The highways are nice in Italy. The scenery wonderful. We stop every couple of hours for a break and we either go to a small side place or the wonderful Autogrill. This is resting in style and with flavor. These are big rest stops that extend over the highway so they can be accessed from either side. There are two floors. The bottom is like a cross between a gas station, mall food court, and a grocery store. They have a few food court type places to grab a quick bite. But no sitting! Just eat at a table and on your way. The difference here is that the sandwiches or pizza are made fresh and are REALLY good. They are not those barely edible cellophane wrapped sandwiches that you find in a North American gas station. These are the real deal.

The second floor is a buffet style restaurant complete with mini bottles of wine or a bottle of beer with your lunch. Not to mention more fresh, mouth watering food to choose from. A little pricier but you get to sit at a table!

The pop, coffees, and teas are a little expensive so the tour provided a solution to that, which I often chose. At the back of the bus was a sink with a hot water tap and a mini fridge below. The fridge was stocked with drinks. You just marked on a list what you took and everything was 1 Euro; a true bargain for a can of pop or cup of tea whenever you wanted one.

The drive up to the Alpi di Suisi was intriguing. As you go farther north it begins to look less like the Italy I've gotten to know and more like what I think Austria or Switzerland would look like. This area is called the Land of the Castle and I can see why. They are everywhere among these mountains. These castles often seem to be just clinging to the sides of impossible cliffs. And to think these were built before the cordless drill! Wow the mind boggles at how they accomplished it and how many years it would have taken.

The winding mountain road lead us to the small alpine town of Castelrotto. The mountain's of the Dolomites loomed over the little town. It was raining a little and the clouds where clinging to the mountain tops. Even though it was raining it couldn't hide the beauty of this place. The bright green of the alpine meadows below the town seemed almost brighter next to the grey peaks and clouds.

Our rooms were quite cozy. Country style furnishings with a big inviting bed comforter. We had a while to settle in and then we met in the lobby for dinner right here in the hotel. We had a printed menu just for the group. The dinner was perfect to take the chill off. For our primo piatto (first course), a lovely rich wild garlic soup - wow! The secondo piatto (main course) was roast beef with asparagus tied in a little bundle. It was finished off with dolci (dessert), berries on gelato. Lovely meal, company and setting.

Picture Perfect

I Think the Weather's Changing

Yes, it Did Change.
To Hail!!

This Was All I Got Done, Since the Hail Interrupted Me

Bolzano

The Market is in Town

Plenty of Stalls to Choose From

This Stall Was Selling Meats and Cheeses

Wow, I've Never Seen Such Skimpy Outfits For Polka Dancers Before!

I Feel Like Heidi in the Alps!

Country Style Furnishings with a Big Inviting Bed.

Mural in Castlerotto

Our Lovely Hotel Restaurant

Day 4
Bolzano and the Meadow

This morning we were headed on a day trip to a larger town called Bolzano. On the way there Ferdi announced that we had a tour of the town museum booked to see its main attraction, the Ice Man.

Our Ticket to the Ice Man!

The discovery of the Ice Man was in the news in 1991. Hikers had found him near a trail high in the mountains, where his body had been preserved in a glacier. How exciting! The museum had the body and all his artifacts.
The museum was small and well laid out. There were displays illustrating the life the ancient man may have lead before you reach the floor that actually featured the Ice Man. He dated back to the 4th century BC. It's the oldest such mummy ever found.

I really enjoyed exploring the exhibits and was so amazed at what they were able to piece together about his life from his clothing, tools and forensic testing of the body.

There were two highlights of the Ice Man exhibit. The first was the birch carrying case that he had used to carry embers to make fire! The embers were wrapped in maple leaves to keep them from burning through the birch carrying case. The second was the Ice Man himself, named Otzi. It's so eerie to see this body in an environmentally controlled room. He was covered in a layer of clear ice but he doesn't look dried out completely. They say you could move his fingers. He still has his eyes which seen to gaze straight up. How amazing and humbling. I'm so glad we were able to experience this on our tour.

We had free time to explore the town a little on our own. It was a market day and we wandered around the stalls taking pictures. I bought some wonderful dried kiwi's there. Later on I went back to the town square were we were to meet and found a little show going on at the gazebo. There were 2 pairs of colorful polka dancers. Wow, I've never seen such skimpy outfits for polka dancers before. After the dancers there were 4 guys in leaderhosen performing a fancy whip show, kinda funny.

Back to the Dolomites and up to the Alpi di Siusi meadows. These meadows are higher up above our home base of Castlerotto. The weather was cool and cloudy but pleasant for a hike. It was a beautiful big meadow dotted with little alpine huts and cottages that climbed up and at the end the Dolomites seemed to rise straight up to the sky. We walked along and I finally found a really nice spot to paint.

The view was beautiful. The meadow stretched out toward the impressive Dolomites and a little hut sat at their base. I began to paint in the mountains and that was all I got done because soon there was a rather threatening dark cloud coming over the mountains and toward me. I saw people hurrying back along the trail and took the hint. I packed up my paints and was on the path when it started to hail! I was really surprised at myself because I managed to jog 2/3 of the way back and I literally can't remember when the last time I had jogged was! It was not pleasant but I made it. By the time I made it back to the little village bus stop the ground was completely white with hail!

This Was All I Got Done, I was Interrupted by the Hail.

The bus soon arrived and took us back to Castlerotto. I was so glad my room had a big bath tub. I got a cup of tea and ran a hot bath. It was lovely, refreshing and it really took the chill out.

It seemed like our hotel was the only thing open in town. I guess it's a shoulder season. So we had dinner at the hotel again. The menu was so mouth watering it was hard to decide. I settled on the in season white asparagus that our table shared and gulash (deer meat in a rich gravy) for dinner. Sorbet to finish it off.

Tonight, as I curl up under the comforter I fall asleep to the rain on the window pane and thoughts of our destination tomorrow, and what it will bring. . .Venice!