Dolomites

Departing Venice today, sadly. It’s an amazing place, unique obviously. When I next come back I’d like to spend at least a couple of weeks here, and truly explore the city and understand the history. There’s nowhere else like it.

What would I do differently? Well, the tourist crowds around St Marks and surrounds are a challenge, and that appears to be where most tourist go. As we left today we saw 5 cruise ships, most of whom will have been dropped at St Marks and Gondola rides I’d imagine. By contrast, we’ve explored the back streets and the outer islands and had much less crowed and seemingly genuine experiences. Murano, but especially Burano, amazing and real highlights. Bur frankly, wherever you look and go, it’s all simply amazing and slightly unbelievable … How did they do it, and who does it continue to exist? And while everyone says it’s expensive, it sort of is, but not outrageously.

Our apartment was 100 euro per night and in a quieter local area, it was great ad cheap. The supermarket was nearby and was not that more than other markets we’ve been to in Italy, wine (importantly) could be still bought for 5 euro. Sure, the ferry cost 35 euro for 3 days, or 7 per trip, so as our pass had expired we had to buy one way tickets, $50 for a 30 minute trip back to the carpark, which cost us 104 euro for 4 nights. Didn’t do a gondolier ride, but that was ok, next time I’d be keen to learn to drive one, you can do that! And that’s Venice, it’s an unbelievable and crazily interesting place that you need to go to, whatever the cost.
But anyway, it was time to go. North to the Dolomites, just 300 km, and 3 hours on autoroutes away. Spectacular drive up the valley and then finally up onto the tops. Wow, amazing! And I kind of expected this, but seriously, is this the same country?

Not really it seems. It’s alpine, green, huge, beautiful, and not seemingly Italian. More Swiss or Austrian. And not surprisingly, German appears to be the first language Quiet funny to be in Italy, but where people greet you in German. But English appears widely spoken too …

And the place? Well, we’re in Siusi, near Alpe di Siusi. It’s been very hard to figure out where to go in the Dolomites. I’m still not sure we’re in the right place, but certainly it’s incredibly beautiful, and the campground, wow, never stayed anywhere better! We checked out the facilities, and thought we’d ventured into a spa or private hotel area, it’s truly 5 star. Amazing!

Pasta dinner (surprise surprise!) in the campsite, with lovely local wine, in an idyllic setting and so far good weather. That’s likely to change tomorrow with heavy rain forecast. We’ll deal with that when it arrives! And at 39 euro a night for the family, good value.