Sunday, July 29, 2012

Dolomites, Italy once again july 2012

typical bucolic scene, an easy hike the first day, at least for me. The men did something much more adventurous
view walking back to hotel in Selva


our much harder walk on day 2. Trail Stevio. we went up to the gap at the top

destination was up near that spikey point

Scott nearing the top which thankfully had steps

where we came from and where we were going to

The other side of the mountain and in the front of photo the narrow trail we took down 

something nice to divert the eye as we walked down

very cool protruding cliffs in front

narrow trail down in front of picture

Selva comes into view from above

Back at hotel in time for a great swim

Trail Stevio, 2550 meters, is in view just to left of biggest rock

Another's day hike with town of Ortisei in view

Oldest church in area (dolomites?) San Jacob, had a great fresco of St. Christopher on the side of it

 low clouds one day

 view  from our room with sun

appetizer one evening, all different raw fish

first course of ceci soup with shrimp

eggplant topped with fish and an eggplant pate

Being in the Dolomites had to try the canederli (dumpling) one evening with prosciutto

hotel view, cloudy Saturday with lots of low lying clouds

same view from hotel after clouds lifted and the mountains had received some snow

Same mountain as the snow starts to melt a great waterfall (middle of photo)

hotel lobby. we missed Christopher

Matthew going up so high and in deserted places saw a lot of the animals native to the dolomites. These are stambecchi.

Matthew doing the serious climbs with a guide. Trails are called Ferrata (iron) and you can see the iron hand rail one uses. A lot of these trails were build during W.W. I as this area was almost the front line between the austrians and italians.

matthew climbing up to 3,000 meters
We had a great week in the Dolomites (italian alps) which have become a UNESCO site in the past two years. It is a gorgeous area which we have been to many, many times over the past 25 years in both summer and winter. Its beauty only seems to get better.  We stayed in the Alta Badia area, town of Selva di Val Gardena. Wish I was back there.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Venice once again july 2012

ca d'oro on the grand canal

front of frari church

lovely venice

our morning cappucio

everywhere one looks....

another grand canal view

fish capitals at the fish market

and of course what is more normal than a squid on a banister?

the bridge built for 24hours from venice across the guidecca canal to Guidecca

cousin daisy playing on the streets of giudecca

so much fun getting together with cousins Joe and Daisy in Venice


matthew, anna and nancy

people crossing the bridge

boats getting in place for the firework display

dusk

fireworks were spectacular


and what could be better than viewing them from Frank and Liesl's altana (terrrace)

our private garden in the little apartment we rented

view from our apt window, side door of frari
Scott, Matthew and I went to Venice for the weekend for the festa of the Redentore (for the history see last year's post). Once again we had a great time. How can one not in Venice with good friends? This year we had the added pleasure of having my cousin Joe and his wife Daisy there who was playing in a mini- concert of sorts on Giudecca. We also got to visit with Frank's sister Nancy. We had a fun Friday night cocktail in our private garden followed by dinner at Il carampane, Saturday we wandered the streets and fish market, lunch at Oniga, ice-cream at Grom, took Joe on a round-about walking tour to see the Scala del Bovolo, listened to Daisy play, dinner on Frank's altana, followed by the fabulous 30+ minute firework display over the Guidecca canal and a very fun walk home over the bridge with hordes of people back to hotel. Only way home from Giudecca to Venice that night is the bridge, unless you have your own boat. Sunday we walked over to see the bridge again, met Joe and Daisy and dragged them once again through the alleys and streets with us to have lunch at Vecio Fritalin (excellent). Then off in the car to the Alps. Another great Venetian weekend.