Saturday, July 10, 2010
Cortina d'Ampezzo and the Dolomites
Bergamo
The Dolomites
Today is July 9th and we are now about three weeks into our ten week stay here at Lake Como. Yesterday was sort of a do nothing day after we got back from our two day excursion to the beautiful Dolomite mountains in northeastern Italy. We had our choice of two routes to get there. We decided to take one way there and the second way back. The shorter of the two is the long way and the longer way is the short way!! The shorter way in miles is all non- Autostrade with a drive of about 350K, averaging less than thirty miles an hour. Again for those who may be following on a map we took all the back roads, almost on a straight line, from Mezzegra to Cortina-d'Ampezzo. Cortina is smack dab right in the middle of the Dolomites and just spectacular scenery wise. The drive the entire way was one scenic view after another. I wished I had a camera mounted on the front of the car where I could take photo after photo with a touch of a button. A twisting and turning road the entire way going through small town after small town, each with their own unique beauty and style and personality. The engineering feats to build these roads are truly unbelievable. Of course these were probably only foot and horse paths hundreds of years ago but with the invention of the automobile they needed to be widened. What a job. Many places it was best for our well being not to look down into the bottomless canyons and just keep our eyes on the incredibly narrow road surface. The fun began when a big truck came the other way and you needed to decide who was going to back up to find a "wide' spot for the vehicles to pass each other. I have always enjoyed checking out the rivers and streams associated with these canyons(massive run off from the snows in the high elevations)and Joan needed to remind me more than few times that it wouldn't be good to end up in one of these rivers 500 feet down the side of some precipitous canyon. Good advice for sure. Since I'm writing this of course nobody died!! As we got closer to Cortina we discovered that this area grows apples in an amazing abundance. For at least 50K we passed orchard after orchard of apples. We knew this was big business for the northern Italians when we saw at least ten huge packing sheds for the apples. The Italians must be providing apples for the whole of Europe from this region. Quite a phenomenon!!
The entire drive took more than eight hours but it was well worth it. The town of Cortina is very beautiful tourist town known for its mountain beauty and skiing opportunities. Please look up "Dolomites" in Google for a description way better than any thing I could possible describe. Just like St. Moritz the summer presents hundreds of miles of hiking trails for the hardy. Some easy trails and some impossibly difficult with huge altitude changes. We just did a two mile stroll through town and did a little window shopping. Again upscale shops with the opportunity to purchase stuff you didn't need. We pretty much kept our wallets in our pockets! We stayed in a quaint hotel but nothing fancy. Since we already were paying for a place in Mezzegra the double "rent" hurts a bit. After a leisurely breakfast we headed out for the ride back. This time, of course, we took the long way back which is the quick way. Other than about 60k of a scenic drive leaving the Dolomites we soon hit the Autostrade for a 420K ride back. The Autostrade is not free! You get a ticket when you start and pay when you leave. Our trip back cost about $30 U.S. but worth every cent for the fun of driving as fast as you wanted without worrying about a ticket.. Yes, there are speed limits but no one pays attention to them and we never saw a cop the entire way. The trick is to stay in the left hand lane and keep one eye in front of you and one eye towards the rear. There is no road rage over here. If someone comes up fast behind you just simply pull over a lane and let them fly by. No big deal. Even though we were moving along fast there was still plenty to see. Lots of industrial buildings but still many small towns with the obligatory ancient church in each. If you check out your map you'll see that we went south practically to Venice and then headed left (west) straight towards Milan and then north back to the Lake Como area. A stop at the supermercato for some stuff and then finally home. Photos coming soon.
The entire drive took more than eight hours but it was well worth it. The town of Cortina is very beautiful tourist town known for its mountain beauty and skiing opportunities. Please look up "Dolomites" in Google for a description way better than any thing I could possible describe. Just like St. Moritz the summer presents hundreds of miles of hiking trails for the hardy. Some easy trails and some impossibly difficult with huge altitude changes. We just did a two mile stroll through town and did a little window shopping. Again upscale shops with the opportunity to purchase stuff you didn't need. We pretty much kept our wallets in our pockets! We stayed in a quaint hotel but nothing fancy. Since we already were paying for a place in Mezzegra the double "rent" hurts a bit. After a leisurely breakfast we headed out for the ride back. This time, of course, we took the long way back which is the quick way. Other than about 60k of a scenic drive leaving the Dolomites we soon hit the Autostrade for a 420K ride back. The Autostrade is not free! You get a ticket when you start and pay when you leave. Our trip back cost about $30 U.S. but worth every cent for the fun of driving as fast as you wanted without worrying about a ticket.. Yes, there are speed limits but no one pays attention to them and we never saw a cop the entire way. The trick is to stay in the left hand lane and keep one eye in front of you and one eye towards the rear. There is no road rage over here. If someone comes up fast behind you just simply pull over a lane and let them fly by. No big deal. Even though we were moving along fast there was still plenty to see. Lots of industrial buildings but still many small towns with the obligatory ancient church in each. If you check out your map you'll see that we went south practically to Venice and then headed left (west) straight towards Milan and then north back to the Lake Como area. A stop at the supermercato for some stuff and then finally home. Photos coming soon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)