One night in Venice…

With planning only one night I felt we risked maybe feeling like we weren’t giving this world renown destination a proper visit… but it turned out one night was all we needed to get a good taste of an amazing city.

Coming from a peaceful mountain retreat and heading to another mountain stop we enjoyed our frantic crowded visit to a destination.

We returned our car at the airport and found our way to the dock where you catch a shuttle boat to the city. We opted for the slow and scenic route on these boats about the size of a large city bus. We glimpsed out the windows as speedy water taxis zipped past us. The ride was like a slow tease around every corner and across every canal the boys asked if ours was the next stop, finally we arrive at St. Mark’s square. This gorgeous square reminded me Dubrovnik a bit, packed with little booths selling magnets and keychains, tour groups and gawking tourists like us.

We wandered around before dinner, got properly lost and video’d in to Elliot’s classroom. We treated the kids to a view of the Rialto bridge, gondolas and general Venice business.

Every so often and more and more frequently especially in the winter Venice floods a little bit… something to do with rising oceans and occasionally extra high tides. When portions of the city flood they call it the Acqua Alta. It is somewhat disconcerting that the average street level is only a foot or so above the water level.

We stumbled across an old book store with hundreds of water logged books that they turned into a staircase. At the top of the stairs you can look over into a canal…

For dinner we were given a restaurant recommendation from our hotel… I couldn’t find the place for the life of me, we must have circled it twice until Lidia grabbed my phone and bailed me out in the navigating department. Venetian ‘streets’ are narrow, go in circles, seem to follow no plan, are interrupted by canals, generally feel off kilter, are filled with people which makes them feel even smaller and more confusing.

The restaurant was full (a good sign in my book) they managed to tuck our foursome up on a repurposed ‘balcony/staircase’ over looking a ‘square/alley’ we enjoyed a tasty dinner pretty much on our own. An Italian you’ll meet later once told me that when a restaurant has no view the food has to be good.

The boys walked down to the little courtyard as we were finishing our dinner. They found a little Italian boy who had a empty crab shells. He was stomping on them, crushing them into smaller and smaller pieces. They he would scrape together the pieces and throw them in a cistern drain. We couldn’t discern the purpose of his actions but the boys were digging it and as best they could they befriended him temporarily and joined in.

The fresh water for Venicians long ago was provided by a network of cisterns. The big pot looking thing below.

Of course now they don’t need cisterns but they are still present all over the city… hundreds of them, everywhere you look. They are all capped off to keep you from falling in I’d guess.

Anyway, Venice was nice we took the elevator to the top of the Campanile and went into St. Mark’s Basilica the morning we left.

But we must be moving on, back into the mountains into the Northern Italian Alps ~ The Dolomites!

The Dolomites are flat out spectacular. Being from the Midwest we’re not picky about our mountains. The peaks are steep, craggy and just beautifully imposing. Naturally the hiking is bonkers gorgeous.

We were visiting a region of northern Italy, close to Austria where 95% of the people speak German not Italian. Signage is in both Italian and German. The landscape it dramatic, green and dotted with farms. The towns are clean and well run.

Our small town was called Kastelruth (German) or Castelrotto (Italian). Nestled amount the Dolomites you are surrounded by hills and mountains. The view from our room:

We spent four night here. Again with the delicious ‘full board’ option…

By day we ventured up into the mountains. Nearby is a gondola that takes you up 1000’ in elevation up to a high alpine meadow, the largest in Europe. It’s a national park know by a few names… Schlern or Seizer Alm.

They hike in the summer and ski up here in the winter. The meadow is roughly circular and maybe 10 miles in Diameter. In the summer it’s full of dairy cows, crisscrossed by hiking trails that connect slick gondolas and ski lifts which ease the way and get you up and down. Best of all everywhere in this valley are little ‘refugios’ basically lodges and restaurants where you can enjoy a panoramic view, a beer and some schnitzel.

We were blessed with a crisp clear day on our first day’s hike. It was pristine some of the most enjoyable hiking I’ve ever had. We won’t see the likes of a place like this again.

The only mar on this perfect day was that Elliot fell and reopened a couple of old nearly healed knee scrapes just after getting off the bus which dropped us at the gondola.

Then halfway thru the hike his band-aids were coming off so we stopped to change them and get him cleaned up. We applied the last of our bombproof (Elliot-proof) bandages…. He got fifty meters down the rocky trail before taking another serious digger… splayed out on the trail he managed to catch his knee right where we had just applied fresh bandaids!

Poor guy, sometimes the only way to learn that you shouldn’t skip downhill on a rocky uneven trail is to bite it but good.

As you might know I always have about 3 to 4 spare semi-secret bandaids tucked away. We patched him up, bought some ice cream and held his hand for most of the rest of the hike!

So that’s our fist section of Italy! Unsurprisingly, the ‘Big I’ knows how to deliver. Next we’re off to the Cinque Terre back to the sea!

On our way out of town we stopped to see Otzi. Literally a caveman frozen in ice that they discovered here 20 years ago. Otzi lived in the region about 5,000 years ago. He has his very own museum. A recreation of the guy…

The boys also go their first haircut of the trip.

This majestic and beloved bell tower rang all day long. Charming, but a bit much early in the am..

Thanks for checking in with us! Hope life is good with you!

Ski-lift selfie: