Mantua

Our next stop was Mantua, primarily to meet friends/fellow travelers Kathy and Rick Howe, but also to see the Ducal Palace there and the works of Mantegna. We found Kathy and Rick at the appointed camperstop, by the Lake Inferioure. A heat-wave was underway, temps in the mid-90s, with Alaska-style mosquitoes swarming outside. So we stayed inside, testing the limits of our AC, and tasting a variety of wines and cheeses. Next morning Kathy and Vicki and I did the ducal palace while Rick dealt (successfully) with their Italian internet provider.

Much of the distance from Bolzano south toward Mantua is a great valley--
a gorge I would call it, with high walls on either side, but a mile or more wide 
in most places--very heavily planted in grapes, very big-time Italian wine 
country; anyhow, above is one of several castles along the route, this one 
perched high atop a huge pinnacle

Wine in capsules; Bardolino, Valpolicella, Lambrusco...

Not the great stuff, but we had to stop anyway at a place called appropriately Dulce, 
to pick up a few souvenirs

In the ducal palace, Pisanello's unfinished Arthurian frescoes

Ditto

Mantegna's portrait of the Gonzaga family; note obligatory dwarf

Remains of an intriguing Mantegna allegory

The trompe l'oeil oculus is one of the earliest, and certainly the first to show the 
putti and others looking down from the heavens

Next we strolled Mantua's weekly market, in its three connected central piazzas, 
certainly one of the largest we have seen in Italy

Rick and Kathy and a very, very rare shot: side-by-side American campers in Europe!

And us

Fun On The Federico Augusto Trail

The next day I did the loop trail around the Sasso Lungo group. Well, technically, half-way around, with a ride to the col between Sasso Lungo and Sasso Piatto, an exciting descent down unadvertised snow and scree slopes, and then a race to the down-hill chairlift, which closed at 5PM. Another stress-test.

The general idea: walk around the three in the middle there, after taking the 
cable car to Alpe di Siusi and then a chair- lift up to Williamshut, then a 
cable-coffin to the col, then back down and to Williamshut and the chairlift, 
which runs only between 9 and 5

On the chairlift: don't rock the boat

Ever-present parasails

Determined dad: toddler on his back, infant in carriage; mom is just ahead on 
the trail, waiting to assist over a rough patch

The lift up to the col between the two peaks; the "cabins" large enough for one 
person to stand...

View from the col: Sella Pass, a previous campsite

Snow-draped Marmolada, highest in the Dolomites

Other side of the col: looking up the snow slope; crampons 
and an ice axe would have been handy

Ditto; I did have a chance to practice my scree-glissade technique

The Italian Alpine Club maintains some beautiful refuges 
in the area

A welcome sight, the chairlift back down to Alpe di Siusi, which I made with 
17 minutes to spare

By the time I was back down in the "meadow," the entire massif was covered 
in cloud, and I was glad not to have spent the night up there

Alpe di Siusi

We drove on, through Castelrosso, to Alpe di Siusi, one of the Dolomites' major summer and winter playgrounds. Alpe di Siusi is featured as Europe's largest alpine meadow. This I very much doubt: Alpe di Siusi is covered with deep ravines, hills, etc. Meadows are supposed to be sort of flat. Whatever. It is a beautiful place, with hiking trails everywhere and cable-car access to the higher elevations. When we found out the major cable-car company allowed over-night parking in its lot, we decided to stay 2 nights.

Sights along the way, a train station turned hotel

By no means our first cable-car campsite

Vicki on the ride up to Alpe di Siusi

The Sassa Lunga group, which I will explore the next day;

note wildflowers

Panning around, mountains everywhere

Time for some apple strudel at the Almrosen Hut

As the cows look on

Mountain azaleas abloom

Thus; best showing of them I have seen

More wildflowers

Perfect U-shaped canyon; there are no glaciers left in the

Dolomites; but there used to be...

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

c

Venice: The Frari

If you don't have time for museums and art in Venice, at least go see the Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari church. It is a vast and beautiful Gothic church, Venice's only Gothic, and it contains in a nutshell the best of Venetian art. It was our last stop and a fitting and positive end to our 3rd visit to the Wet City.

A huge old brick church in a square; no way to

see the whole thing

Looking up the nave, through the choir, to

Titian's great masterpiece

Titian's Assumption; I don't much care for this

stuff, nor for Venetian painting generally (too

over the top), but this one is pretty compelling

Titian's tomb

Detail

Bellini's great altarpiece; enlarge and look at the guy on the

right

Donatello's St. John

Canova's tomb, modeled supposedly on the

Piramide in Rome

The exquisitely carved choir