August 2 & 3- Trip to Cortina

Cortina had been my dad's favorite place and three years ago we had gone there to place some of his ashes. I wanted to go back again to spend more time and discover what he had so loved about this place.

Uwe & I left on Tuesday morning driving into the mountains on a perfect day. For approximately half the distance, the road was a 4 lane highway and the rest of the way it was 2 lanes meandering in and out of several picturesque villages.

Our hotel in Cortina was a short walk to the business/ pedestrian walkway through town.

Our beautiful hotel

We arrived around noon and our room was ready. Very pretty, clean and functional with a balconey decorated with flowers overlooking the mountains. I was in love.

After getting settled, we walked to town. The pedestrian area was loaded with tourists- again mostly German speaking- and we walked & walked & walked. We had lunch at a little out of the way place and then checked out the local craft show- on every Tuesday & Friday.

Our main aim though had been to go on at least one gondola ride each day and get a totally different perspective of Cortina- and did we ever!

Following the town map that was provided by the hotel we found one of the many lifts open during the summer and got our tickets to go up ( and up ).

Cortina when viewed from the top.

What totally amazing scenery- the absolutely prettiest place I have ever been.

A great bar/restaurant at the top where everyone was catching rays.

After doing a bit of hiking- wore the wrong shoes- and taking so many pictures that my batteries died, we took the ride back down.

Dinner that night was at a nearby hotel. Per usual we were the first ones there- Italians eat much later than we normally do- but that always meant we got great seats. Our dinner was excellent and we

came home to our room to sit on our balcony and watch the clear sky filled with diamonds- so many stars!

Next day we went to the gondola going up the opposite mountain from the one we tried yesterday. This one was much higher and it took 3 gondola changes to reach the top.
                                         This was our final destination- over the clouds.

                                      It was amazing- totally awesome!!!

The final location had a deck where people were sunning and stairs that climbed even higher. Even though it was 9'C in the shade , it was 22'C in the sunshine as we were higher than the clouds.
                                      Here we are on the deck above the clouds.

                                        And the staircase leading further up the mountain

And there were still patches of snow left in August

Another gondola on the way down from the last stop we were at

We made a stop at the last gondola change since it was an beautiful picture taking paradise.

                                                                     And more!

July 23-30- Week 6 in Italy

On Saturday July 23, we took our friend Lucy back to the Venice airport for her long plane trip home. Her two weeks of visiting Italy were over, lucky us still had another 6 weeks to go!

The following week we spent mostly doing our regular retired thing, working on my blog, doing our exercise tape, bike rides to get groceries, long walks and lots of reading. We also drove around visiting a couple of villages .

One of the most picturesque was Valvasone. This village has a Festa in September that we will be attending celebrating it's medieval traditions and much of the village had a very medieval look- cobbletsone streets, moats etc.

                                                     The church square

More pretty scenes

Some of the many moats

                              

                                           And the pretty place where we stopped for a spritz

On Thursday, Fab, Uwe and Angelo went to the Ferarri plant/ museum in Modena- approximately a 3 hour drive away. They left early in the morning and returned in time for dinner.

Some pictures at the museum

Uwe beside one of his dream cars

                                                           An overview of the entire complex

July 22- Party at Cantina Rauscedo

The Cantina Rauscedo is a Wine cooperative owned by the farmers/vineyard owners in and around the village of Rauscedo. There are 200 owners altogether. They all contribute their grapes and profits are shared according to grape quality/ quantity. Not only does the cantina sells excellent wine- we buy there weekly- but they also sells their grape saplings around the world.

On Friday July 22, the Cantina held their first ever party- all owners, customers, friends and neighbors were invited.
                     We went to Vivaro first to eat and met Barbara, Ermis , her husband who owned one of the vineyards, and their little boy, Eddy.

Fab playing with Eddy

The Cantina Rauscedo Building where the party was held

                                               Food and wine were served and D J's played music.
                                               Uwe & Lucy at the party

All dressed up for the party

Ermis took us for a tour at the back where huge vats of wine were stored.

And more

Fab was hoping to just fill his glass right from the barrel

Our group at the party, Uwe, me, Ermis, Fab & Nicole ( and Lucy taking picture)

July 20- A Day Trip to Venezia

On the Wednesday of our week in Lignano, Lucy and I went to Venice for a girls' day trip. We had decided to take the bus from Lignano which took us to a ferry boat which would take us the rest of the way into Venice. I had been to Venice by train three years earlier and thought that going by boat this time would be fun- NOT! more explanations as this story proceeds.

Our bus left Lignano at a location approximately 15 minute walk away at 7:25AM. Consequently we had to get up and get pretty at 6AM! We had not bought tickets ahead of time- couldn't figure out where- so we got to the bus stop early just be be sure. The bus did arrive on time- first and only victory- and took us for a 2 1/2 hour ride through several other beach towns picking up more and more passengers before arriving at Punto Sabbiadore where we bought our tickets and switched to the boat.

What a zoo! Hundreds of people milling about and waiting for the boat. And what a boat it was!!
We had visions of being in the latest Italian news next day
                                             ' Overcrowded ferry sinks on route to Venice'

We did take some interesting pictures on the way even though we were inside and standing the entire half hour trip.  Getting close to Venice and one of it's hundreds of bridges.

                                          A yacht viewed from our location inside the boat

                                           Wished we were on that one! LOL

The pier where we landed had spectacular views across the water and was crowded with other tourists.

On the way to S Marco Square

Lucy posing in the square

We did have a map of the city and followed what we hoped was the correct route to the Guggenheim museum. We stopped at several locations for typical canal shots.

One more beautiful than the next

The canals were clean and definitly not polluted- we saw small fish- and NO smell! Whatever horror stories you may have heard about the condition of the Venice canals are not true. They are all incredibly scenic.

 And then of course there was the Grand Canal that we eventually found and crossed- absolutely beautiful!

 We spent some time in the Guggenheim Museum- Peggy Guggenheim's Venice home- admiring original paitings by Picaso and others. Her gardens were also beautiful and it is where she and her beloved dogs have their eternal resting place.

The Wishing tree in the garden donated by Yoko Lennon

And more typical obscure Venezia pictures

We had lunch at a little restaurant off the beaten tourist path- you can find many treasures if you go down a few alleys! The food- we shared a tomato & mozarella salad and calamari- was delicious.

Here I am standing in front of our find!

We finally wound our way back to the pier- the last boat left at 4:45PM- and we didn't want to miss it.
Along the pier are hundreds of souvenir stands- we bought lots of stuff to bring home to our family members.
                                   A slightly larger boat took us home and we did get to stand outside this time.

And were followed by a tall Ship

When we got back to the dock to meet our bus, we had to wait for over an hour along with hordes of others. Not a pleasant experience! Plus only one washroom for everyone!!

We finally arrived home in Lignano at 7:30PM totally pooped and wonderful Uwe had a home-cooked meal waiting for us.