Return To The Dolomites

Enough cities, museums, cathedrals, crowds, tour buses, admission fees...and 90 degree heat. The Dolomites are just an hour's drive from Venice, so we headed back there for relief. We visited the Dolomites just last summer, and loved what we saw. So it seemed a fitting time to see more, including some of the more principal sights. The Dolomites, for those of you who don't remember, are the third part of Italy's mountains: the Alps in the northwest, the Appennines, which run the length of the peninsula, and the Dolomites in the northeast. Though much lower than the Alps (Italy owns half of Mt. Blanc, the Matterhorn, and all of Monte Rosa, the three tallest in the Alps), the Dolomites are no less scenic and are far more approachable.

So after finishing Venice, we drove on up north and stopped

at a rest area just at the gateway to the Dolomites; after a quiet

evening we awoke to find ourselves surrounded by four

tour buses, all of them unloading strange people with alpine

hats and big feathers, setting up for breakfast, band playing,

singing; it was apparently Old Home Week (-end) for

Italians born in the Alpine regions; seriously

I kid you not; the group on the left are singing "O Solo

Mio" to accordion accompaniment; on the right they are

fixing a bread and sausage and wine breakfast, after which

I would be singing "O Solo Mio" too

Anyhow, thus enlightened, we drove on,

admiring the scenery

Thus

Wildflowers everywhere

And still some snow in the higher peaks

Lunch break

It is  a beautiful weekend and the motorcycles and sports

cars are out in force; we have just been passed by 4 Lotus 7s

Crebain from Dunland!

Hairpin turns: the price of great mountain scenery

We spent the night at Sella Pass, a tad over 7,000 ft., at the

foot of the Sasso Lungo group, which would figure in the next

couple days, and with views of Marmolada, highest of the

Dolomites; alas, we have been in warm weather sufficiently

long to have forgotten the perils of 7,000 feet in June...the

overnight low was 32 degrees--we had left most of our winter

gear back in the States--but nothing froze

Our neighbors were a young German couple who rock-

climbed in the morning and para-sailed in the afternoon

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