Preparations
With 8 days to go before we leave, we've started setting things aside for the trip. Planning is complicated somewhat because of the backpacking trek in the Dolomites. For example, we need packs, trekking poles, hiking boots, and warm clothes (even though it has been hot in Venice). In addition, we need to make sure that we have the right sized packs and lightweight toiletries, etc. for the trekking. That means doing a "practice packing" for the 4-day backpacking now. Here is just some of the stuff for the backpacks:
In general, Barbara has provided a comprehensive packing list and that's a great starting point. I've also had to think a fair amount about electronics and how we'll keep everything charged. Ana got a pair of sturdy trail-walking shoes and has started breaking them in. I've been wearing my hiking boots to work to try to make sure that they'll be comfortable.
While we have a "laundry day" in the schedule, we're mostly taking clothes that we can wash in a sink and drip dry overnight. This has worked well for us in the past. It means we can get by with less clothing and make our bags lighter.
We're going to try to get everything in 2 largish carry-ons that we will check plus another bag that we actually carry on. We have to check at least one bag because you're not allowed to take trekking poles in a carry on.
Travel Day is Here
We spent the day doing all sorts of last minute things. Luckily Andrew will be looking after the house; that simplifies things some. He even dropped us off at the airport with our 5 bags
We'll be boarding soon. The first flight is to Frankfurt and we connect there to Venice.
Getting to Italy
The flight to Frankfurt was uneventful until we were 20 feet from the gate. A malfunction of some sort meant we had to wait to be towed the last little bit. 25 minutes later we were finally there. Our 1:15 layover was now :50 and we still had to go through immigration. We made it to our gate with ten minutes to spare.
The flight to Venice was fine except that Lufthansa packed some rows full of people and left others empty. It didn't occur to the guy on the aisle of our row to move so we just stayed packed. The flight was only a little more than an hour.
Jim and Barbara picked us up and drove us to Vittorio Veneto, where they have a vacation flat. We had dinner at their apartment and then walked back to our B&B. We should sleep well tonight!
Vittorio Veneto, Proseco Wine Tour, and Tre Cime
The first day in Vittorio Veneto was a travel recovery day. We all went to the Monday-only market, but it was raining and most vendors didn't show up. We continued walking in the old town, ate lunch, and then walked the town some more.
On Tuesday we took a tour of Proseco country. Our first stop was the abbey Follina.
After lunch we went to the Colvendrá winery. Sabrina poured us several types of Proseco and we ended up with a nice Passito dessert wine made from dried Proseco grapes.
On Wednesday we went on a day hike to the famous Tre Cime in the Alps. After a bit, this was the view:
Palaronda Trek: Days 1 and 2
On Thursday we drove to the Alps for our four-day trek in the "Pale di San Martino," which are the second largest group of mountains in the Dolomites. After arriving at the mountain town of Fiera do Primiero, we parked and took a bus up to the smaller town of San Martino do Castrozza. We then took a gondola and a tram up to the top of Cima de Rosetta.
On the tram ride to 2743 meters (~9000 feet), we entered a cloud layer that would be with us for the next 24 hours. We walked down from the tram to the Rifugio Rosetta where we got lunch and hostel-like rooms for the night. We had planned to take a day hike from the Rifugio, but the fog, wind, and cold made us have second thoughts. We would have had a hard time finding the path, let alone see any scenery. We just played cards in the Rifugio, and by about 6 pm the clouds broke enough to get a picture:
and others a smoked pork chop:
The next morning the weather was somewhat worse. We also found out that Jim had been up much of the night sick. We talked about how to proceed. We decided that we could wait until 3 pm at the latest to see how Jim felt and whether the weather improved.
About 1pm the fog thinned and Jim insisted he would be ok for the 3-hour hike to the next Rifugio. So off we went. We were wearing most of our layers and were constantly battling the wind. Ana and I, being from sea level rather than Salt Lake City, were also trying to catch a breath.
After a couple of hours of up and down--during which we were enduring more than enjoying--the trail took us over a pass at 2656m (8711 feet) and then we started a long descent to the next Rifugio:
By the time we arrived at Rifugio Pradidali, the weather had finally cleared and our whole outlook changed with it.
Palaronda Trek: Days 3 and 4
Our mapping program indicated that day three would be the toughest. We would start at 2278m and end at 1631m, a net difference of -2122 feet. Taking into account all the up and down, however, we would be descending about 4000 feet and ascending about 2000. The hike started with a grueling downhill on a rough trail. Periodically, it would cross a debris field left by the flow of water. While it remained mostly dry, such areas were much more difficult to cross as one had to pick a careful path through.
Shortly before lunch we got back down below the tree line for the first time in three days.
We found a comfortable place near the lowest point of the trek to have a picnic lunch that we had purchased at the Rifugio. Jim and I found a mossy patch under some trees that was quite comfortable. I looked up from my sandwich and saw this:
After lunch we started the climb up to the next Rifugio. The trail started in the woods on a dirt path and a little later crossed the pastures of Malga Canali.
After leaving the farm, we got back onto a more serious trail and started the climb.
The end of the trek was about 800 feet of switchbacks, culminating at the Rifugio Treviso.
The following morning we retraced our steps back down the steep trail to the Malga.
After the farm we got on a trail that was new to us and continued our descent.
We had lunch at a nice restaurant and then continued walking down trails to the town of Tonadico, where we were forced at last to use the roadway to get to the parked cars in Fiera di Premiero. Our day's trek started at 1631m (5350 feet) and ended at 705m (2314 feet). A modest amount of uphill made the total downhill somewhat more than that. I hope our legs recover before we start our walking-intensive city tours.
Rest Day and Venice
We spent the day after the Alps trek resting in Vittorio Veneto. We did some laundry and went to the Monday market again, since it was more or less rained out the previous week. Then we went to the old town area to have drinks and dinner. Giorgio, Jim and Barbara's property manager, joined us he's quite a raconteur!
On Tuesday we took a day trip to Venice by train. Leaving the station, you walk right out to the Grand Canal.
We then took a circuitous route through the Venetian Ghetto to the Chiesa della Madonna dell'Orto.
Unfortunately, they had a fee forbentering, so we didn't go in.
Next up was the Chiesa drive Gesuiti and then we made our way to the Rialto bridge, which like many structures in Venice, is undergoing renovation.
We ate lunch near the bridge at the Trattoria alla Madonna, which Giorgio had recommended, and then headed for St. Marks square.
After some time there we walked to the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute. It was a long walk because we had to go a fair distance to get a bridge across the Grand Canal and the closest one was the Ponte dell'Accademia.
Rather than retracing our steps to the bridge, we decided to take a water taxi back to the train station.
We saw many interesting buildings from the water, some of them private homes.
It was a great way to finish our trip to Venice.
Florence
After breakfast, we headed off for our 8am reservation at the Uffizi Gallery, one of the premier art museums in the world. In addition to paintings by Leonardo, we saw the Madonna and Child with Five Angels by Botticelli.
We also saw Botticelli's well-known Birth of Venus and La Primavera. Perhaps the most interesting painting was the Baptism of Christ by Verrocchio (with help from Leonardo). I had heard about it in art history class 35 years ago! Art historians attribute the angel below to Leonardo.
After the Uffizi, we walked around town for a bit before meeting back at the hotel. We then walked to the train station and took a fast train to Rome.
Rome: Days 1 and 2
After arriving on the train in the late afternoon, we took a pre-arranged car to the apartments. Jim, Barbara, Ana and I then went out for dinner to an Irish pub. The food was quite good and the beers were great!
The next morning started with a trip to the Galleria Borghese, which dates from the early 1600's. Its original owner, Scipione Borghese, was a Cardinal in the Catholic church (and a nephew of the Pope) and an early patron of the sculptor Bernini.
Ana and I each got the audio tour guide for the museum and it was full of interesting information. For example, we heard that the wall sculpture below is a combination of an ancient Greek horse with a rider carved by Bernini's father. That practice of "enhancing" classical works of art was apparently commonplace in the 17th century.
We also heard the story of two Bernini busts of Cardinal Borghese. When the first was nearly complete, the sculptor found a natural crack in the marble that ran through the forehead.
He finished the bust anyway and then carved a replacement. The story has it that the copy only took three days!
While the current collection is impressive, it used to be much more so. In the early 1800's, the then owner, who was Napoleon's brother-in-law, was forced to sell the Roman sculptures and antiquities in the collection to Napoleon at fire sale prices.
In the afternoon Barbara had arranged a tour guide for us to escort us through the Vatican museum, the Sistine Chapel, and Saint Peter's. Ciarla was great. She new what rooms to take us to in the enormous collection. She also provided context for what we would eventually see in Michaelangelo's paintings in the chapel. My favorite room was the one that used to be a library where Raphael's "School of Athens" was on one of the walls:
After the Vatican museum, we stopped by the Sistine Chapel (no photos permitted). We then went to St. Peter's itself, where we say Michaelangelo's famous Pieta (now protected with a glass shield wall).
For me the most impressive thing about St. Peter's is the sheer scale of the building.
We walked back to the apartments from there and went out to dinner. Since it was a Friday night, we were lucky to find a nice restaurant (Il Fico) near the apartment. Ana had "sea bream" and pronounced it "excellent". I thought I was ordering a daily special, but the waiter understood it to be one of the regular menu items. It was marinated steak. While more than I wanted to spend, it was also excellent.
Rome: Days 3 and 4
Day 3 in Rome (Saturday) started with another tour with Ciarla, this time to the Colosseum and the old Roman Forum.
After the Vatican, we tried to visit the Pantheon about 5:30 but it was closed to visitors because there was going to be a mass at 6pm. We resolved to see it in the morning. Ana found out that there was going to be a mass at 10:30, so we would need to be early to be able to get in. Walking back to the apartment, Jim asked if anyone was going to attend mass. I replied that we were going to attend "the ante-mass" and then had to explain that it was "ante" with an "e" and not an "i".
For dinner on Saturday, we had arranged with the apartment agents (Allesandro and Emanuele) for them to prepare a meal for us that we would eat on the apartment's terrace, which had this view of nearby churches:
They provided a pasta course, a veal dish with a side, and a dessert. Some of the group watched them prepare in the apartment kitchen.
Day 4 in Rome (Sunday) started with a short walk to the Pantheon. Built in Roman times as a temple for their gods, it was later converted to a Christian church. For more than a millennium it had the largest dome in the world.
Nearby the Pantheon is Piazza Navona, where Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers sculpture stands.
In the afternoon we took a bus and the subway to a park where we would start a bike tour of part of the Appian Way. Our first stop on the tour was the Catacombs of Callixtus (no indoor photos permitted). It once contained the tombs of several popes and martyrs from the 2nd to 4th centuries. Catacombs were a solution for burying dead in a cost-effective way. Tombs lined underground passages. When there was no more room for more, they would dig the passageway deeper and hollow out more tombs on the newly exposed walls at the bottom.
The catacomb complex has about 20km of such passages.
We then continued our bike ride. In one spot we saw evidence of the wear of chariot wheels on the rocks of the road.
We also stopped at several tombs dating from Ancient Rome.
Near the end of the bike ride, we saw several of the aqueducts that Rome is famous for.
For dinner we went to Il Fico, very close to our apartment. We had been for dinner on Friday evening and really enjoyed it. The Sunday experience was just as good. We can heartily recommend the place.
