Living la Dolce Vita

Our somewhat mixed up trip brought us next to Italy. We landed in Bologna and were picked up by the owner of the apartment we had booked. He was an incredible talker and by the time we arrived at the apartment we had learned that he was 60, had married and divorced twice, but still wanted to have kids despite the fact that he's sterile. (I was sitting in the front seat so he was telling all this to me!) He thinks his only chance is to get a young Phillippino wife and use IVF! This man can't listen to anyone and certainly is no catch. I hope for the woman's sake that he forgets this idea......

The reason we're starting our trip in Bologna is that we wanted to catch up with friends that we met on another trip three years ago. Monica and Daniele live in Bologna and were on their honeymoon when we met them. Now they have a toddler and Monica is over 8 months pregnant!

It was so good to see them again. They hadn't changed at all - except for Monica's tummy! Despite Monica's looming birth and the fact that Daniele was in full training for a triathlon the following weekend, they looked after us so well. They took us out to see some local sights. First up was an organic Parmigiano Reggiano cheese farm near Modena. It was fascinating.

The cows were shedded but free to leave if they wanted to. There were about 1200 cows, calves and bulls in here!

We then went to where they make the cheese. Huge wheels of cheese floated in briny vats.

Our guide was a super-friendly and enthusiastic woman. She was wonderful!

This is what 6 million euros of cheese looks like!

We all looked gorgeous in our hair nets, haha.

We finished with a cheese tasting. They made the best ricotta cheese I've ever tasted and the aged Parmigiano Reggiano cheese was sensational, especially with special Modena balsamic vinegar on top!

We followed this with a wonderful lunch of local fried pastry-like bread, called crescentina fritta or gnocco fritto, with cold meats and cheese. Delicious!

The next day was my birthday and I was treated to a tour of Bologna. Bologna is famous for its 'porticos', ancient covered walkways that were built high enough to ride a horse under. This one dates from medieval times.

Daniele grew up here and knew lots of interesting stories. He showed us where one decorative block on a building was different to the rest and told us the story behind it.

I think my favourite story was the one about a 13th century house. Legend says that a nobleman came home one day to find his wife in bed with another man. Furious, he dragged the naked woman outside and ordered three archers to shoot her. They were so transfixed by her naked beauty though they shot their arrows into the ceiling above them instead. The three arrows are still there today. You have to look hard as the ceiling is nine metres above but they're there! You can see one in roughly the centre of this pic.

Noble families used to display their wealth by building towers. The higher the tower, the richer you were. The downside is that some of the towers have started to lean over the centuries. We saw one that had to be shortened to stop it falling on nearby buildings. This one has a significant lean to the left.

Leonardo, Monica and Daniele's two year-old, joined us. He was such a great kid! 

We had another amazing lunch for my birthday at a well-known local restaurant. We ate a local dish of a type of tortellini in broth. Yum! I adore the bracelet they gave me too!

At my request we finished the day with local gelati. The queue to get in the door was amazing! We ate them in a nearby park. It was a wonderful finish to a fantastic visit. 

Trying to squeeze all five and a half of us into the photo! 

Thanks for looking after us so well Monica and Daniele!

In between our catchups during the days, John and I found a wonderful restaurant nearby for dinner. It was near a beautiful lake which was really popular with locals. There was some sort of music performance each night we were there, including a night of swing dancing which looked amazing. Another night Irish music was played but it wasn't the same sung with a strong Italian accent!

Leaving Bologna, we picked up a hire car and headed north. We thought we'd go via Lake Garda but it was chaotic with tourists so we left there without even getting close to the water. As we drove, we started to pass castles perched on hilltops and gorgeous churches set in green valleys.

The towns became more Germanic in style the further north we went and by the time we arrived at Ortisei, our destination, we were surrounded by a buildings that looked like they were straight out of a Brothers Grimm fairytale. I almost expected Hansel and Gretel to walk around the corner. I felt that things were taken a step too far though when we entered our hotel and the receptionist was wearing a traditional costume.

The reason for this style is that this area used to be part of the Austro-Hungarian empire but was given to Italy after World War 1. It's still very Austrian in style. Locals speak three languages as a rule - German (from Austria), Italian and Ladin, which is a local language specific to this region.

The town really was beautiful. Pastel-coloured buildings with colourful shutters and flower-boxes decorated the rolling hills around the town. Tourists were everywhere! Our hotel had been recommended by a friend - thanks David V! - and it was amazing. John found an incredible bottle of wine on the menu that night for a half-decent price and we had a wonderful meal. 

Unfortunately, the weather took a turn for the worse. It was grey and threatened to rain.

We were here to do a bit of walking and see if we liked it enough to plan a longer trip here next time when our foot injuries are fixed. It's a huge hiking and skiing destination. It was weird to get to the start of a walk via a long escalator designed to carry skiers to the slopes.

The weather was supposed to get worse the next afternoon so we headed out to see the Dolomites in the morning. The cable car took us up to the misty mountain top.

The views of the Dolomites here are normally amazing, but now clouds mostly obscured the mountains. 

We set off on our walk. There are so many tracks that we made parts of the walk up as we went. The tracks were really busy with hikers but the scenery was beautiful, even if the famous mountains were never fully visible.

Crocus flowers popped up along the paths.

Like many European hiking tracks, these ones wound their way through farmland. To keep stock off the tracks they often used electric fencing. We saw a few unsuspecting hikers touch the wires! This fence pushed the limits of what's reasonable though. It ran along the handrail that's put there for the hikers! It wasn't particularly obvious either.

We walked to a well-known simple restaurant for lunch. The food was incredible! It had things like flowers with herbs as a main course!

We chose less garden-like options though but they still were decorated beautifully with petals and herbs. It was all delicious and it was weird to have such a lovely meal out in the mountains on a hike.

Gorgeous timber barns were scattered around the farmland. They made the scenery look very Swiss, even though we were still in Italy.

At one stage we saw this sign!

Much to our surprise we heard the clip clop of horses' hooves as we were riding a chairlift up to the cable car at the end of the day. This soon appeared. Ok, it's not a sleigh but it's still unexpected!

Rain was supposed to come in in the afternoon so it got quite busy on the trails heading back but the rain held off and we stayed dry. 

As we were heading towards Switzerland next, we realised we could go through Liechtenstein, a country that neither of us had been to before. It's only tiny - about 160 square kilometres. As we drove in, the bad weather formed a spectacular sky.

The prince lives in a palace that overlooks the town.

The area was very neat and very Swiss-looking. It's right next to Switzerland. It even uses the same currency and power plugs as Switzerland, and is just as expensive!

We spent one night there and it was ok but we see no need to go there again!

Ciao!
Heather and John