Monday, September 16, 2024–
Today we drove the Great Dolomite Road from Bolzano to Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy,
. The Dolomites are a UNESCO World Heritage Site, so this road attracts many visitors each year. Seasoned athletes ski the Dolomites, seasoned bikers and cyclists pedal them, and hikers walk the many trails. Alone the way, one could see some cows grazing on the green mountainsides, beautiful horses (not wild); and large white ducks swimming in the alpine lakes. The alps, themselves, are breathtaking! They inspire awe and respect by their massive heights and bulk alone! But the mixture of snow at the highest parts, gray-brown-tan-gold rocky areas, and the lush green on the low-to-mid mountain heights renders this alpine range truly beautiful anywhere one looks! We drove through tunnels, many narrow and sharp switchbacks, and shared the road as needed with other cars, tour buses, trucks, bikers, cyclists, and hikers. Some parts of the road had no guard rails, and many did. The road was beautifully maintained. Charming, quaint, Austrian-inspired small towns dotted our path, with buildings decorated and painted in attractive and inviting ways, flowers still in bloom, stores for one’s necessities, many hotels and apartments, bakeries, restaurants, and cafes. The signage was in German, Ladin, and Italian. I was able to speak Italian with everyone we met. We bought delicious artisan bread buns and a coffee for a snack (and for permission to use the vendors’ toilets). One also finds tiny Churches in these small towns, many from the 1800s. One even had a small cemetery on site, not unlike the beautiful one we saw yesterday in Castelrotto. In fact, that is where I found my very first Alpine Star flower, aka edelweiss! And THAT’S how I knew for sure that my father is traveling this journey with me! Alpine Stars were his favorite flower, but they are not easy to find in the wild. They grow in high alpine areas, and although I have looked, I have never been able to find one. Today, I prayed that I would be led to one of these flowers. Soon after that, I FOUND a bunch of them! They were not in the wild, but they were alive and growing. They were not in their prime, perhaps, because I understand they bloom in early summer. BUT, evidently edelweiss is a treasured plant for people in this area because I found them planted on multiple graves in the tiny cemetery adjacent to the tiny Church in Arabba, Italy! Soooo happy my Father would be traveling with us on this return to our native land❤️
Continuing—
We passed beautiful alpine lakes. The colors were magnificent: perhaps a chalky marine green with little to no transparency at all, or a brilliant emerald green, with the power to treat the onlooker to mirror images of the trees and mountains alongside, or maybe even a stellar, clear, teal! Of course, mountain streams and fast-flowing creeks were delightful to see.
We even passed the ruins of an old castle high up on the mountain sides. There was a museum, a tiny reconstructed Church next to the ruins of the original, and other tributes/vestiges of WWI. In fact, among the several ski lifts along this road, one would take us to the very top of a huge, tall, snow-covered alpine tip. There, we would be able to view some of the evidence of the fierce fighting that took place there in WWI. We fully intended to go until—it was very windy up there, it was cold, and we were not appropriately dressed, there was a severe wind advisory in that area for later tonight, and the chair lift pod looked very small from where we stood, very high in the air, and dependent on a seemingly thin cable…. We changed our minds. We did not go.
The last stop of the Great Dolomite Road was Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. That is a larger, more populous city, seemingly ski-oriented, and with tons of hotels, stores, ski school, ski resort, restaurants, church,…anything one could imagine needing while there. Interestingly, many of the houses appear to be very similar in color, style, and size. We did not stay to explore Cortina, although it did seem lovely. We were concerned with getting back to more familiar surroundings of our Farm.before the dark of night set in.
Dinner tonight was in San Sigomondo, Chienes, Italy, not too far from Terento where we are staying. Some restaurants were closed today, having taken Monday as a “day of rest.” Petra Pizzeria served us a cozy and delicious dinner of Canederli (yes, again) filled with spinach and/or cheese for me and Quattro Formaggi pizza for Dad. My personal preferences? Jet’s Pizza in the States and the Canederli Dad had in Castelrotto yesterday. We had not anticipated encountering Tyrolian specialties from the get-go, but we are so honored to have experienced it, and I believe we did a pretty good job sampling some of its signature food items!
Our Travels 