The combination of wifi issues and a busy schedule means that I haven’t been keeping the blog up to date. I’m writing this off-line on the place from Pisa to Stockholm and wanted to put something down to wrap up our stay in Italy. I still plan to detail out what we did, but to do it will take longer than I have, and I don’t want to be constantly behind as we head into the last phase of the trip.
I’m really thankful for the time we spent in the Dolomites. The idea to visit was first presented by Kerry Clayman when we were discussing places in Europe, but it was too challenging logistically for me to figure out. The solution we came up with was for Kerry to help with the planning, and in that process, it was decided that Kerry and John would meet up with us. The 8 days in the middle of our trip became the hinge between the first part of the trip in Greece and the last part in Euro-scandia.
Before even getting to the Dolomites, we were aware that we had an issue with our itinerary. The temperature in Tuscany was hovering around 100 degrees for the 4 days we were planned to be in San Gimignano, and we would not have air conditioning. We had looked at changing our plan multiple times but couldn’t come up with a better idea that wouldn’t be wildly inconvenient or expensive. While on our two-day adventure to the Refugio, the plan became clear. We would stay in the Dolomites. In actuality, after working with Greta, our host at the AirBNB, we were able to stay in the same house for an extra four days. It was wonderful. The few places we hadn’t seen yet, we got to visit. And the places where we felt we needed more time we got to go back to. We did another monster E-MTB ride around the Alpi Di Siusu. We did the ropes course a second time, this time completing the treacherous “Black” course and the Zip Lines. We went deep into the forest at the Tirler resort. It was magic and relaxing and exhausting.
Our last day we just laid around in the morning and spent the afternoon at the pool and souvenir shopping. We also ate more gelato. It turned out that the gelato shop we had been visiting may have been the best in Ortisei all along.
We did manage to get a taste of Tuscany, which both convinced me we made the right decision to stay in the Dolomites and scratched an itch for Italian food. On the drive from Ortisei to Lucca/Pisa we stopped at a lovely small Italian restaurant and enjoyed a lovely meal where I’m not really sure what we were eating as there were a lot of menu substitutions that I agreed to without understand what I was being asked. We also stayed a night at a villa, so we got to swim in the pool and eat in the main square fo the villa. Finally, Emilie figured out a route on the way to the airport that got us are 5min to visit the leaning tower.
As I get the pictures loaded, I’ll post more on the Dolomites, especially as I want to record where we went and what we did, but for now I want to focus on enjoying the last two weeks of the trip.
Notes: I finished reading Cloud Cuckoo Land. It’s a great book about the value of books and the importance of stories. It has some of its settings in Greece and Italy, which made it seem topical. I need to find another book. So far, I’ve read Mythos by Steven Fry and A Farewell to Arms by Hemingway.
Notes: My interest in the climate continues. I’d like to understand how the Europeans are managing their forests. It was interesting to see the mixed-use farming/skiing going on. There appeared to be a lot of wood being cut down, but it wasn’t visible from the public areas. There also seems to be a large focus on public use. Almost any activity you could imagine was happening.
Notes: I’d like to study more about water usage and conservation. Tied to climate, but with an interest in de-salinization, especially the climate impact. My understanding of de-salinization is it is very energy intensive, but I’m not sure why that is true.
Notes: The tunnels on the drive from Ortisei to Lucca were amazing. I’d never seen tunnels long. Lots of questions on why and how. Makes the tunnels we are building in Seattle seem not so impressive.
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