Our journey began with a long flight of course - through Dubai, and then a hire car done in Italian with jet lag. All first world problems to be sure, and I managed not to hit any guardrails on the first day; I missed them by an Italian mile (an inch at least).
BUT when we became human again we were in this place:
This is Villa Soligo. It’s in Soligo.
It’s an 18th century villa that had seen service as a garrison in both world wars and has been restored.
It was very nice and comfy without being over the top, and it was our home for the first week.
We made friends with Laurena who served breakfast and touched our arms a lot and we did lots of looking at sunsets and sunrises and hanging by the pool with a veritable shitload of Austrians. That kind of stuff.
Margot became quite at home. I think we must have had the best room - on the corner on the first floor.
I guess our intention was “Let’s see what the Prosecco Hills are like” so we did some nice little walks around and about.
In nearby towns there were lots of lovely buildings, cloisters, churches and villas to look at.
Some we sought out and some we stumbled across.
Our first week passed very quickly, and it was time to move on. We had not booked anything after Soligo, but Margot had some ideas of lakes to visit, and so we booked a farm stay In Dobbiaco, which was nearly in the Dolomites.
We chose to go through a famous mountain pass to get there.
I don’t think our photo really coveys how steep this pass is. It is called the San Boldo pass and there were lots of switchbacks through tiny single-lane tunnels that required enormous faith in our little Fiat Panda and in the drivers who shared the pass with us.
People do these passes for fun - especially on weekends. At the time of writing I do not yet regard them as fun, but I am keeping an open mind.
Our host and her family were lovely, and we learned about the close relationship they have with the cows that support them.
Above is a picture of the lake we walked around after we arrived.
The next day we hired electric mountain bikes - which were a revelation, and rode to Cortina and back on a rail trail.
We had really come to this place though, to walk around Tre Cime.
This was when I bonded with our little Fiat. It was very steep with many switchbacks getting up to the car park here, and the smell of the clutch at the top made me very glad it was a rental car.
This walk was spectacular. It was not particularly arduous, but very beautiful and very rewarding.
After all that we had a quiet day the next day visiting Lago di Braies (below) which, while lovely, was rather busy with fashion shoots and brides, and removed any regret we may have had that we would be leaving the region the next day.
Our next stop was now planned for St Christina a bit higher in the Dolomites. Still less than one third of the way through our trip.
If you want to see part two, its here: https://spark.adobe.com/page/1Vixk9iBStNsH/