Better Late Than Never!: We made it! Dolomites Day

Driving into the Dolomites was spectacular. I've always wanted to see them, and now after seeing a small part, I want to see the rest. It is a large area of northeastern Italy that is impossible to see in a short stay.

What we found out, was that the night before, in the darkness, we had driven up a steep mountain pass into an alpine community. When we drove down out of it, we saw this expansive fertile valley, part of what they call "Alto Adige," filled with orchards and vineyards. The soil had to be rich. The harvest from this region supplies all of Europe. The apples are unique to the region, and it's big wine country.

This mounded vineyard captured our eye from the car.

We kept seeing rows upon rows of orchards covered with high nets. Finally at a truck stop Aunt Lynnie and I walked over to investigate an orchard. It was full of all kinds of apples - one a very deep red, nearly purple color. I've since learned it's called a Scarlet Spur. I took pictures of the trees, all were a single, tall columnar tree, one right after another. I took pics, but somehow they've been lost, so I did some sleuthing and found these photo examples. One is copyrighted, so don't use it! ;) You can see they grow them tall and skinny, fastened to a concrete post. They were all about 7-8 feet tall, and laden with apples.

We drove through the wide valley past Bolzano on the "Strada Dolomites." I'm including a map here so you can get an idea where we went. The grey areas on up in the mountains, the green are agricultural valleys. We climbed back up into the mountain to Castelrotto, where we actually began our Dolomiti adventure. The lower circle is Castello di Fiemme, the upper left is Castelrotto, and the one on the right is the Sella Pass.

The first glimpse we had after climbing up the mountain again toward Castelrotto...

And we thought this was magnificent. Then we drew closer...

Then we came into the small town itself. The clouds broke a bit, just enough to give a beautiful perspective along with the blue sky. We spent a couple of hours here drinking it in.

Aunt Lynnie and I went exploring while Dad went to get gas and look for a map. :) There was this old church on a hill... we had to sneak past some cows to find the path to the church. Met some geese as well as the cows. Nice people who gave us directions, and a locked church. But it was so work the spectacular view.

See the church in the distance?

Nice people telling us the secret way past the cows...

I've been told their uphill legs are shorter...

The goal...

We've decided Lynnie is lots cuter than I am. ♥

The path back to the road led directly through this farm...

I would live here.

We couldn't stay here all day - too much to see. We drove up the Val Gardena, many stops along the way. There are wood carvers to meet and gelato to eat.

Small towns along the Val Gardena were picturesque ("What a picturesque spot. I wonder where we are?") Ortisei/Sankt Ulrich, San Giacomo/St. Jacob, Santa Christina/St. Christina. Woodcarvers paradise. Too bad we hit them at the afternoon 2 hour coffee break...