(Left to right) Mountains, Croda de Lago and Cortina d'Ampezzo
Day 1
Sometimes there is a grand plan, sometimes things happen by chance and sometimes it is a combination of both. Our friend Silvia (mainly Rebe's friend) told us last year she was getting married in Tuscany in June of 2025 and that we would be invited to the wedding. Now I'm not a huge wedding person (neither is Rebe) and I'll probably show up to yours if you invite me but if you're getting married somewhere cool there is definitely a better chance that I (less likely we) will show up.
But you can't just come to Italy for a wedding, when you fly across an ocean it's a rule that you have to spend a little extra time doing something you might enjoy and Italy is one of those things we enjoy. We thought we would head over a little before the wedding, explore the Tuscany region before moving on to a few other things.
We left Houston Friday June 20th in the evening and after connecting through London we arrived in Rome. Picked up our rental car and headed north to the city of Pienza. Pienza is a tiny town in the Tuscany region and we thought it was a good central point to stay that would enable us to see the sights easiest. There is a plan, we'll see how the plan goes.
We arrived to our humble abode around 430pm local time, it's a multi-bedroom apartment with a shared living/kitchen space. Currently we're the only people here, and we'll see how long that lasts. Maybe no one else will show up, but I really doubt that'll be the case. It is not like the shared space will really matter, most of our time in the area will not be in the room but out and about checking out the area. (no one else ever showed up)
Our Air BnB and our trusty BMW
The plan for dinner for the night was to be at the La Bandita Townhouse in Pienza, but apparently on Saturday nights the place gets booked up. Did not think reservations would be an issue in this tiny town but apparently it gets filled up quickly. The next place we tried was also full, so we settled on dinner at Beccofino. We both had bowls of pici pasta with a blob of burrata as a starter.
It was then back to our room to pass out as we were both sleepy, we both woke up at 2am and then fell back asleep at 4am only to wake up at 9am.
Day 2
First full day in Italy and for today we had a tour booked in Siena, a nice town about an hour away. We were originally going to stay in Siena but in looking at the towns we were going to visit we thought we could save some road time by staying in Pienza.
After waking up at 9am we got dressed and headed to a local shop which had a meat counter. They had all sorts of local meats and cheeses and homemade bread. We went with a salami, 6 month old cheese, some tomatoes, and some olive oil infused focaccia bread.
We then drove over to Siena, found parking on the edge of town and then walked in to explore on our own. We first stopped at the Basilica Cateriniana San Domenico, normal church not much to see (or was there...).
Interior of Basilica Cateriniana San Domenico
We then walked in the heat of the day, summers in Tuscany are no joke I'd almost say they are Houston-adjacent, over to the Medici Fortress. Just another walled fortress in town and there happened to be a pizza joint in the fortress which was closed and a smaller tapas style shop along the upper section of the fortress. We sat in the shade to enjoy the time and food before meeting our tour guide back outside the Basilica Cateriniana San Domenico.
View of Siena from the fortress
Our tour group was 9 people, mostly Americans but one father son duo from Argentina. First stop was back inside the Basilica Cateriniana San Domenico. This church was apparently a shrine to Saint Catherine, one of the patron saints on Italy (along with Francis of Assisi) and Europe. Inside the church they have a few of her relics, including her THUMB and more importantly her HEAD (with the face skin still completely intact). Both of which Rebe and I DID NOT see while on our own tour. This is a prime example of why you need a tour guide for this old stuff in Europe, you'll just be walking around thinking you're in another church and nope you're apparently walking through the Vatican and don't even know it.
Inside Basilica Cateriniana
From the church our guide lead us through the contradas (neighborhoods-ish) of Siena, she described how each contrada has a museum, stable, baptistry, and chapel. The last two are where the young ones are basically baptized in the contrada. A stable you ask? Well, Siena is know for having an amazing horse race in the heart of city, and of the 17 contradas only 10 get to participate in the race at time (the other 7 get to participate in the 2nd race of the year). Museum is for history and collection of the contrada's winnings, and I assume the chapel is for worship.
After walking through the center of town, Il Campo, we made our way to the Siena Cathedral. We had been to Florence and from the outside the two cathedrals looks similar but that's where the similarities end. The front of the Siena Cathedral is ornately decorated with statues galore, and the interior is just as ornate. While they did eventually run out of money for the Siena Cathedral, they got a lot farther than Florence, which is funny because I believe Florence once overtook (captured or something) Siena.
Siena Catherdral
Interior of cathedral
Library inside the cathedral
Arm of John the Baptist, which only gets displayed a few times a year
Just next to the cathedral is what is left of the NEW cathedral, mostly the central nave but the roof collapsed due to poor soil and an earthquake that wrecked the roof and tilted a few of the central columns. We were able to climb up the remaining facade for views of the church and surrounding hills.
Remains of new cathedral
Us atop the facade
We were also able to visit the crypt, not really a crypt in the normal sense but it is an area under the main altar that typically is reserved for special relics but since they only discovered this area in 1999 it's mostly just a show place for art. This crypt area is encroached upon by the baptistry just below.
The baptistry
From there our tour was over and we needed to kill a few hours before dinner so we checked out a local wine bar for some snacks and drinks. Dinner was at the Osteria Il Carroccio, we tried to arrive at opening time to get a table but they didn't have room and as they were turning us away a spot opened and they told us to come back in 30. In the 30 minutes we had time to scamper across town over the Catherine's house (the saint) for a quick glance. Also while crossing town, two of the contradas were marching and drumming.
Contrada 1 marching through town
Contrada 2 in the main square (Il Campo)
Pici
more pici
After dinner it was an hour drive back home.
Day 3
We had a long day yesterday which resulted in us getting to bed late and thus waking up later than usual (still some jet lag in there). We had some left over pici pasta from the night before, we heated it up in the oven and then packed up and got on the road for our self guided tour of the day.
First stop was the tiny village of Bagno Vignoni, bagno means bath in Italian and this town is known for it's hot spring or pools for bathing. In the center of town there is a nice manmade body of water and a few shops and restaurants to check out. We decided on some after breakfast gelato. Just down the hill from the town are a few pools where locals and tourist come to hang and soak. The water didn't feel hot to the touch and given the fact that it was 91F (33C) out today it was probably a good day to chill in the water.
Water in the middle of town
Hot spring for soaking
We then made our way up the hill to a town called Castiglione d'Orcia, in this town there are two fortresses/castles. First stop was Rocca di Tentennano, and these small Italian towns are difficult to park in because they are so old and have tiny streets that are not made for modern cars. As a result we were wary of where to park. First we parked on the opposite side of town, and in hindsight it probably would have been fine as the town is literally a 10 minute walk across. We thought that was too far, so we drove back across town and down the hill which was still 10 minutes from the sight we were trying to visit. Lastly we just said, "let's drive to the sight and see what we see, if we can't get close we'll just revert back to the first parking spot." Lo and behold, there was parking right at the front of the Rocca di Tentennano but sadly they were closing for lunch at 1pm and it was 12:50. The gatekeeper was cool and let us in anyways as it is not like we needed monitoring while in the fortress.
Rocca di Tentennano
View of Rocca. Aldobrandesca from di Tentennano
Both of the fortresses in the town close from 1pm-230pm and since we finished at 145, we still had a hour to kill before we could enter the next one. We debated moving the car and going through the entire parking debacle again but we just walked across the town to find a nice lunch at a place in the heart of the village. There was only one other Italian couple having lunch at the establishment (Enoteca Dell'Orcia) but owners sat us out in the courtyard and served us a caprese salad and some mushroom ravioli, oh I had two negronis.
View from the lunch spot
After lunch we made it over to the Rocca Aldobrandesca, the other fortress on the hill, this one was a little more open and less sheltered than the other but still a very cool thing to visit.
View of town and Rocca di Tentennano from Aldobrandesca
A short drive from Castiglione d'Orcia was the town of Bagni San Filippo, if you're paying attention you might could guess that bagn* might have something to do with a bath. And in this town you can find the Fosso Bianco, which is a spring that contains a lot of calcium carbonate and results in these large white formations. If you have ever been to Yellowstone and see the Mammoth Hot Springs area, the Fosso Bianco is very similar. Now at Yellowstone they don't let you play in the water or hot springs anymore but here in Italy it appears there are no limits on climbing on these formations.
Fosso Bianco
Fosso Bianco
Last stop of the day was the town of Radicofani and it's Fortezza Radicofani. This is another castle/fortress but this was built on a star-like pedestal with a castle in the center. The Tuscan towns mostly sit on hill tops and this was no different and from the fortress you could see in all directions. Simply another amazing gem in the Tuscan region.
Fortezza Radicofani
View from Fortezza Radicofani
We were rebuffed from La Bandita on Saturday but that resulted in us making reservations for Monday (today). It did not disappoint.
After dinner we walked the town to help digest the food before calling it a night.
Day 4
An extremely lazy morning was how the day started, do not think we started moving from the beds until 10am, then we made our way down to our new favorite store for a breakfast sandwich. By now the young woman running the deli knew us by face and how we liked our sandwich so it was a quick order. We ate our sandwiches on the backporch of our apartment before starting our journey for the day.
We left Pienza and made our way over to a town called Montalcino (not to be confused with Monticchiello or Montepulciano) but the stop was not actually in Montalcino rather an abbey built in the 1100's. This location used to house monks as close as 10 years ago but the shopkeeper told us they went back to France and apparently the monks had only moved back into the abbey in 1992.
Church at the Abbey
Housing for the nuns
While we were touring the main church the clock struck 12 noon, and one of the sisters was ringing the bell of the church. As we were walking by she was trying to encourage other tourists to ring the bell for her but since she was speaking in Italian, no one knew what she was asking. But Rebe and her Spanish skills sussed that the lady was asking if anyone else wanted to ring the bell and of course Rebe gladly obliged. Rebe got to yanking on the bell and got it swinging so hard that it actually stopped ringing and the nun had to calm her down a bit. I sadly didn't get a pic because I was laughing too hard (the nun kept saying that Rebe was fuerte (strong)).
Around the back of the church there was a pharmacy where they sold all sorts of goods. Herb, honey, saffron, honey with saffron, oils, creams, jams and even some alcoholic beverages. I grabbed a couple of beers and some what I assume is a pomegranate liqueur.
Drinks from the Abbey
A 2nd beer
It was time for lunch, so we headed back into Montalcino and found a nice lunch spot in the heart of town called Enoteca Grotta del Brunello. Nice spot where we had some pork cheeks, ravioli and chickpeas. We ventured around town for a second, found another fortress to explore before deciding we had had enough of Montalcino.
Our AirBnB host had given us a pdf with a few things to do and on the list were a few of the towns we wanted to visit and then some we hadn't. It also mentions the abbey which we did not have on our list and also had restaurant and winery recommendations. I was actually tired of walking around and wanted to chill for the rest of the day and what is a better way to chill other than sitting on a hilltop in Tuscany sipping on some local wine. We hopped in our car and headed for Poggio Grande, as we get closer the road turns to gravel and we also haven't seen a car in a while so we definitely are off the beaten path. We arrive and there's not a car in sight... There were two buildings so Rebe pics the closer one and opens the door. No one to be seen. So we call out, "hello...?" And out pops the owner, big smile and goes straight into his Italian. We break out our "buongiorno" but that's all we got. Then we ask "English? Spanish" to which he replies, "only Italian" - in Italian of course. So then the charades began and we ask if we can do a tasting and he nods yes and points us up the hill. We promptly take off up the hill for the other building looking to speak to someone else. Then here comes the gentleman up the hill on a lawnmower and opens the door for us and asks us (in Italian of course) if we wanted to sit inside or outside.
He explains the tasting is 3 wines for 20 euros and then goes through the entire menu again in Italian and we catch enough of it since I understand enough Spanish and Rebe catches more since she speaks Spanish fluently. All in all, it was great experience and a great laugh.
View from Poggio Grande
While we were getting started with the wine we messaged some of Rebe's friends, who are also in the area for the wedding and loves wine, one was about to go off exploring on her own but detoured to come have a glass of wine with us. Adriana shows up and starts speaking Spanish to the guy, who again only speaks Italian, and at speed just confusing the hell out of him. Rebe and I had to play interpreter but it was all good fun. Rebe found out there was another group reservation coming at 4 and since it was close enough to that time he didn't mind serving us, also another group showed up who was not the tour group, and he served them too. Later the owner's daughter shows up, totally confused to why there were 3 groups on site but she just rolled along with it.
Adriana and us
We bought a bottle to take home, or to drink in the next few days. We'll see.
After the winery we detoured to the original location our friend Adriana was going to visit, which was a tower in a a small village that was a historic site. We park and walk into town, right past some locals with the intention of climbing the tower but the tower has a sign that says private property. We all had a good laugh and continue on to check out the small village.
We then headed back to Pienza for some rest before our dinner at 730 at Trattoria da Fiorella
Day 5
We still had some leftover sandwich in the fridge from yesterday morning as our sandwichnista made us a larger portion than expected, so we finished that for breakfast before embarking on our personal tour of Pienza. We stopped by the small church of San Francesco and then within a 2 minute walk we made our way over to the large main church of the town, the Cathedral of Pienza.
While touring the church we saw a sign for the crypt and decided to see what that was about, apparently the town has an audioguide the includes the crypt, the church, the museum and the papal palace. Yep, this tiny town had a pope that was from here and lived in town with his friends. Don't want to read to much into his friends living across the street but I'm just making a note of this interesting bit of history. This same pope is the guy who had the library built in the Siena Cathedral.
Inside the Pienza Cathedral
Courtyard of the Pope's Palace
Back garden of the Pope's Palace
Stairs down and further down in the crypt
We then visited La Bandita again but for lunch this and I spent the rest of the evening tending to work calls and emails. Rebe continued on her tour of the museum in Pienza.
With work complete, we left Pienza with our bags and headed for our evening tour at La Foce. It is an old Italian estate that over looks the hills of Val d'Orcia and got a history lesson and tour of the gardens. The estate was originally a hostel until it was lived in by Antonio and Iris Origo where they transformed the land into the grand gardens that they are today. Iris was actually English and chronicled her time at the estate during the Second World War.
Pool House
Main House
Upper garden
Lower garden
Now it was wedding time, the groom's family was hosting a small gathering in the Arezzo countryside for everyone to have a meet and greet and a few bites.
When the party was over, for us, we headed our prearranged hotel that was on the outskirts of Arezzo, the plan was to stay here since it was also where the wedding reception was being held. But when we got there the place was older and did not have air conditioning (which was a problem amidst a sweltering heat wave in Italy). We probably could have survived 2 nights there but we decided to find something a little nicer and closer to Arezzo proper.
Luck of the draw the first hotel I found, was nice, had air conditioning and even had free parking for our rental car. After getting settled you know we had to go out for gelato.
Day 6
WEDDING DAY
We woke up in our air conditioned room nice and refreshed and wanted to do some quick touring of Arezzo since we were here and after breakfast in our hotel we headed into town.
First stop was the Medici Fortress, yep the same Medici's from Florence, and while we got there early we did not actually know where the entrance was so we literally walked the entire outside before finding the actual entrance. When we did it wasn't actually open so we had to wait 15 minutes.
Portion of the Fortress
Another section of the Fortress
After there we headed to the Santa Maria della Pieve Church, we picked this church because we thought the wedding was in the other big church in Arezzo. While enjoying the church, another wedding guest recognized us from last night and told us they'd see us this evening HERE at the wedding. Glad they told us cause we definitely would have gone to the other church for the wedding.
Santa Maria della Pieve Church
We had lunch with another friend, Suzy, from Houston at i3 bicchieri, then it was back to the hotel for showers and suiting up for the wedding.
Cell phone pic from the wedding
We got to witness a traditional catholic wedding service which was delivered in ~90% italian. After the wedding we had time to kill and went over to the Arezzo Cathedral, where we thought the wedding was going to be held. Inside the cathedral it seemed that a pope was buried inside, maybe two. Then we killed more time with a drink at Chiantineria.
Then it was out to the wedding reception for dinner and dancing.
Day 7
Today was moving day, going from Arezzo to Florence to Bologna. After eating a tiny breakfast at the hotel we got on the road on the way to Firenze (Florence) with the intentions of maybe seeing some of the sights we skipped last time we were here back in 2017 and of course eating at our favorite restaurant, Trattoria Baboli.
Italy has an interesting system of car control in the larger cities, I guess it's similar to what Manhattan has implemented with its new toll system, but they have a system called ZTL (Limited Traffic Zone) and if you get caught in one of those zones you will get captured on camera and be sent a ticket. Of course google doesn't care about these zones, so you'll have to be paying attention as to not just blindly drive into the cities. Google told us the quick route was through the south and soon as we got close to the city we saw a ZTL sign so we pulled over and tried another route, this way through the main highway that goes by the airport. We thought we'd have more luck with this method but just as we figured we saw more ZTL signs, we were already in too deep so we decided to keep going. We were going to park in a garage, but we lucked up and found some street parking, not sure if we were allowed to park on the street but there was a meter so we hit up the meter and parked. We had a little time to kill so we checked out the Di Vinci experience, definitely a tourist trap.
The entire reason we stopped in Florence was to have lunch at our favorite restaurant in town, Trattoria Baboli, and nothing says Tuscany like pici pasta and florentine steak. Steak was massive and we had leftovers for days.
After lunch we headed back to our car to continue the drive up to Bologna but only to get stuck in traffic for 45 minutes. Maybe if we were running live Google Maps it would have given us a detour but since we were running off Rebe's downloaded maps we had to sit it out.
Once in Bologna we were able to dodge the ZTL in town and found a parking garage to store our car for the night. We had decided to keep our car for one more day as tomorrow as it would be useful for our tour of the Bologna countryside.
Since lunch was so large we decided to skip dinner and just do some walking into the heart of town and have some gelato at Gelateria Dolce boom boom. We found the super large church in the heart of town, according to my friend it was supposed to be larger than St. Paul's' in Rome but the Vatican made them stop... or they ran out of money and both could be true.
Just off the main square in Bologna
Giant Church - Basilica di San Petronio
We then returned back to our apartment to discuss our busy day tomorrow.
Day 8
The day was to start at a breakfast spot my friend from Atlanta, Justin, told me about but they didn't open their doors when Google said they would, so we went to a cute place across the street and were very happy with our choices. A focaccia sandwich and a nutella filled croissant.
Today was all about Modena, a town just outside of Bologna and famous for balsamic vinegar and some small car company named Ferrari. The day was packed and luckily we still had the rental car cause otherwise the following would not have been possible.
We started the day at the Enzo Ferrari museum in Modena, it's located just outside the heart of town and partially in the house that Enzo sold to start his first car company. It's a small museum dedicated to the start of the company and has some cars on display and a lot of writing about the history and legacy of the company.
F40 and F50
The rest of the Ferraris and us
Enzo 🤤
House Enzo Ferrari grew up in, I think they added on to it
We were in a hurry through the museum but we saw 95% of it and read most of the stories and even watched a few videos, but at 10am (the museum opened at 9am) we had to hit the road because we had a balsamic vinegar tour further out of town at 1030 and it was 20 minutes away. We hightailed it over the to Acetaia Giusti for a tour of their museum and to get a tasting of their balsamic vinegar. Acetaia Giusti has been in business since 1605 first starting as a butcher shop and then on to making balsamic vinegar as a side hustle. This side hustle started to blow up and the rest has been history, so much history that at one point the vinegar became the official vinegar of the king.
The company makes 5 normal balsamics and then 2 DOP (Italy recognized 12year+ aged) balsamic vinegar. They gave us the "how it's made" tour, the history of the company and the family, and then showed us where it's aged. Then it was time for the tasting, of course the guide started us with the good stuff and damn it was good, then we tried the even more expensive version and it was good but not quite as good as the less expensive-expensive one.
Entrance to the Giusti Museum
Old brick of balsamic vinegar
Attic of the good stuff
We then tried the 5 normals and number 3 was JUST RIGHT. Sweet, thick, fruity and just simply amazing, and damn near as good as the first expensive one we tried. After debating back and forth on which one to buy we settled on number 3.
With balsamic wrapped up, we had a few extra minutes to spare so we headed back to the Ferrari museum to drive in one of their simulators and no it wasn't the true racing simulators that the F1 drivers use, but a decent game type setup. Definitely better than my setup at home and sadly it was only limited to 10 minutes so I only got 3 laps in at SPA.
It was time for lunch and we had found a Michelin star chef in town but we sadly could not get reservations at the main restaurant but the smaller restaurant had opening and was serving a 5 or 7 plate tasting menu.
Dishes from the restaurant:
After 3 hours of food (and wine for me) we were stuffed and ready for a nap. Rebe then drove us to Maranello, the current home of this small car company Ferrari and we were going to see the factory. Well we thought we were going to see the factory... we saw the outside of the factory from the inside of the bus. It was cool to drive through the campus, see the Ferrari cars lined up and at the end of the bus loop we got to see Enzo's last house and the actual famous test track (side note: the F1 team isn't actually allowed to practice on the test track because it is not an approved F1 track, they can do some old car testing but not new cars).
After the bus broke down and finally got back up and running we then toured the larger Maranello museum.
Trip in to the heart of Modena to see what else?! CHURCHES, we saw one with domes from the Enzo factory that looked cool but couldn't actually find it. We did enjoy some nice gelato while in town.
Modena Cathedral, sadly was closed by the time we got into town
Former church, now houses an art exhibition
Then over to the San Luca church before turning in our rental car and calling it a night.
Santuario Madonna di San Luca
Oh and water heater at the apartment broke...
Day 9
Our bike tour of the city started at 10am, and this was going to give us a good run of the city and get to see a lot of the highlights of the city. The guide took us to a lot of the towers that the city is known for, towers were one of the ways that families showed their power or richness. I secretly think they were just building tall to get a cool breeze in the summer.
The guide also told us about the colors used in the city and the numerous porticos that line the sidewalks. The porticos are great for shade and just like La Rochelle in France it was a great place for vendors to hawk their good and still be protected from the rain. Of course the bigger your arches on the facade of your portico was another way to show your wealth and power. Truly a beautiful mix of architecture.
The "leaning" tower
Our guide taking off on us
The only uncovered canal, the rest are covered
Under a portico
Lunch was actually along the path of where we rode the bikes at a small place called Trattoria De Me, recommended by my Atlanta buddy Justin. It was mighty crowded by the time we got there, but they were able to sit us immediately.
My half eaten green lasagna
After lunch we were going to go see the Basilica di San Francesco but it closes for a few hours during the midday. We changed course and headed over to the Bologna Cathedral to finally get a good look inside it, the town is currently working on the main avenue into the heart of the city and appears to be adding trams but in doing so it kills the views of the Cathedral. The church inside is was very impressive and the amount of detail in some of the are was amazing.
Main altar of the Cathedral
Relics I believe
Inside the inner old bell tower
View from the bell tower
from inside the bell tower
At the back of the church there is a very tall bell tower that offers views of the town, the bell tower is interesting as it was previously much shorter but to build the new tower they just encapsulated the old tower and made it taller.
We then went to see the much larger Basilica di San Petronio, some say it was to be larger/nicer than St. Peter's at the Vatican but I think it's just like a lot of these churches. Eventually they just ran out of money to keep adding on to them. But goodness gracious, if they didn't run out of money this building would be up there with St. Peter's.
Central Nave
15th-century painting by Giovanni da Modena
We then came home for some rest and cold showers, cause our host still hadn't fixed our water heater.
Went back out to dinner at Osteria dell'Orsa
Day 10
It was time for a food tour, what better place to have a tour of food than in the region of Emilia-Romagna, the place in Italy with the most recognized Controlled Designation of Origin products. After skipping breakfast we had met the group at 10am and started on our way.
We first went to a pasta lab, where a group was making pasta by hand and then immediately after they finished making it they took it across the street to be sold for the day.
We then tried some balsamic vinegar, Rebe and I were already experts at this one so we knew what to expect. After the vinegar, we stopped in a wine shop for a little wine and Italian meats, you know salami, prosciutto, salami rosa, mortadella, chichisa.
Next was some actual food, which was two types of pasta. Tortellini and Tagliatelle ragu, ragu in Bologna tends to have more meat and less tomatoes than most people around the world are used to. Another wine and then a walnut liquor called nocino.
Had to finish the tour off with some gelato and I had this creamy pitaschio...🤤
After the tour we strolled around the old part of town that used be part of the Bologna University but is now a museum. We also strolled over to the actual library to check it out as it's also very nice. But we were getting hot and we were trying to cool off in the library but just decided we could cool of better (and nap) back in our apartment.
Library
Inside Santo Stefano
Front facade of Santo Stefano
The Basilica Santuario Santo Stefano is actually closed on Monday but the door said it would open at 630pm so we came back into town to check out the church, but only the main part of the church was open and the rest of the famous seven churches were closed. With that tour shortened we headed to dinner early at La Taverna Di Roberto.
Then went back to gelato at the same place from the tour because it was that good.
Day 11
Breakfast at Forno Brisa, packed and took the train to Venice. Train was late but no big deal, train station was surprisingly huge but didn't appear so from surface.
The train pulled into Venice, and walking from the train to boat stop we had no issues but after the boat the walk to the apartment with a huge roller bag was a nightmare because of all the bridges and stairs... not fun. Heck even the walk from our apartment to the train in Bologna was a pain. A point of advice for everyone, if you're going to Venice be sure to take the boat to the dock with the least walking and not the "fastest" route as per Google. You'll thank me later.
Dinner was at the Osteria de San Marco a close place and also recommended by my Atlanta friend. Expensive but good.
We spent the evening touring the city by foot (because gondola tours were 90€ a pop). A slow boat ride with a smoking driver is not my cup of tea.
View of a canal near our hotel room
The Grand Canal from the Rialto Bridge
St. Mark's Square
At the Rialto Bridge
At 8pm we met for the St Mark's cathedral night tour where they turn off the lights and then turn them back on for the element of surprise.
Central Interior Dome
Body of St. Mark
Central Nave of St. Mark's
After the tour we had gelato in the square before calling it a night.
Day 12
Since we didn't get the tour we were expecting last night, we booked another for today. See last night we thought after seeing St. Mark's we were going to get to see Doge's Palace too, well the website lied and the palace was closed at that hour anyways. Our tour started at 11am and we had breakfast and toured around before our actual tour started.
Accademia Bridge over the Grand Canal
Our tour was led by Edi, a very energetic and hilarious Venetian. She gave us all sorts of Venetian history and continuously pointing out the symbols of Venice and how Venice was once one of the most powerful Republic's in the world due to its banking and trading. To lead the Venetians, they elected a doge. Think of him (always a him) as a mayor, who was typically old and would serve a lifetime appointment, but since he was old he would not have the job very long. The doge was also watched over by a counsel to ensure he was always on the up and up and did not get the idea that he was a king.
Main Hall in Doge's Palace
Lion of St. Mark and symbol of Venice
Bridge of Sighs
Courtyard next to Doge's and St. Mark's
There was also a prison next door to the palace (across the Bridge of Sighs), not typical for the time as it wasn't in a dungeon but drab as expected.
After a snack at the cafe we made our way over to Basillica St. Pietro di Castello after someone told us it was amazing. Well it wasn't amazing but it was nice. Who ever hyped this up had us thinking this was St. Mark's part two, they were well wrong. This was prime example of why you should do some research on your own, anyways we wanted go to this part of Venice anyways.
From there we took the boat (water bus) on a joyride to Murano, this area of Venice is known for glassblowing and after we detoured for some cherries we found an active factory blowing new glass.
Glass blower in Murano
Glass blower blowing into the mold
After our afternoon adventure in Murano we attempted to take boat back around Venice and in our attempt to get to our dinner restaurant the boat mistakenly took us to Lido (it was our own fault), which is a another island associated with Venice. Once we got to Lido, the boat captain made everyone get off... Then we caught another boat back to the main island of Venice so we could eat dinner.
Dinner was at Ristorante La Nuova Perla on the south side of Venice, with beautiful views of the water and great food too.
After dinner Rebe wanted to take the boat up through the Grand Canal, and while we were eventually able to ride the boat through the Grand Canal our journey took us over to the the other island of Giudecca and then around Venice before coming back in through the Grand Canal from the opposite end we were trying to get through.
Photo on a back street after dinner
Image from Giudecca
Grand Canal
Gondola parking near St. Mark's
At the end of the adventure we walked the streets of Venice some more before having gelato at the chain Vinchi.
Cortina travel
We woke up late and took it easy as it was going to be an easy day, but first we had to get to the airport. This meant another slog through the cobblestoned streets of Venice with the luggage and to the boat station. The boats while not tricky, I just assumed that the bus station and the train station were at the same location and they weren't. I then proceeded to get off the boat with the giant suitcase and then had to squeeze my way back on the boat for the trip to the bus station. While on the boat some Americans helped us get to the correct bus to the airport.
Had a snack to eat at the airport before catching the 3 hour bus to Cortina d'Ampezzo.
Dinner was at a German-style restaurant and then it was off to bed before the long the day tomorrow.
From the streets of Cortina d'Ampezzo
First hike 12.7km (7.9mi) - Lago de Braies to Fodara Vedla 1058m (3471ft) up 465m (1525ft) down
To start our trekking of Alta Via 1, we had to get to the start of the trail with 2 bus rides from Cortina to Lago de Braies (Lake Braies). The Alta Via starts at the lake and then goes through the section of trail they call the oven because it's exposed and hot. Not only was it hot, it was up and up and then up some more.
When we reached the top, it was a short downhill to our first refugio. We would be staying at refugios during our days on the trail, just not this one.
Us at the start of it all
Lago de Braies
Lago de Braise and the surrounding mountains
First refugio (Refugion Biella) where we had lunch
The last stretch for the day
After ~3400' elevation gain and ~8 miles later we made it to Refugio Fodara Vedla, which was, as we later found out, the nicest and most poshest refugio we would stay at. While having drinks before dinner, the same Americans that helped us on the boat in Venice were at the next table. We also met some nice folks from Philly who hiked with us for the next 3 days.
Day 2 hike 9.7km (6mi) - Fedora Velda to Lavarella 626m (2057ft) up 482 (1581ft) down
Today was only a short hike of only 6 miles, first part was down a steep mountain into a glacier created valley to which we found another refugio. We stopped for a sit before continuing on our way back out of the valley. The way up was another uphill slog only to be worsened by rain. The rain eased and we made it to our location (Refugio Lavarella).
Next to our refugio was another refugio (Refugio Fanes), so we had lunch there before settling into our dorm room for the evening. Where we shared a room with 5 other people.
Since we got in early ~2pm, we spent the afternoon lounging in front of the refugio and watched the cows eat grass. Also did some Marmot spotting before dinner at 630.
Glacier valley on the way down
Glacier valley and refugio at the bottom
Just before the storm hits
Rebe after lunch heading from Fanes to LaVarella (seen at the end of the road)
Day 3 Hike 13.6km (8.5mi) - Lavarella to Valparola 1181m up (3875ft) (included hike up to Lagazoui) 938 down (3077ft) (including tram down)
The first day of hiking said it was "moderate to strenuous", but today was classified as just strenuous.
We left our refugio and hiked past Refugio Fanes where we had lunch yesterday. The trail rose up a small hill and ran through a beautiful valley before starting up a rise. After clearing the first section we could see the path splitting two peaks. On the other side was a steep downhill maybe too steep to be considered safe...
The beautiful valley
View from clearing the first pass and the gap we were heading towards
The steep decent after 2nd pass
View over the lake where we had lunch after the climb down
Lunch was at a lake before we needed to summit another even taller hill. And at the summit of that hill was another peak which housed the Rifugio Lagazuoi and some front line WWII stuff from the Austrian army. While climbing the final peak, we took refuge in a few of the WWII bunkers while wind and rain pelted on down.
We were able to ride a cable car down the hill instead of hiking down... Of course it was raining quite hard. At the bottom we could catch a bus to our hotel or walk the extra 1.5 miles. Well the bus never showed (and neither did our attempt to Uber), our friends quickly hitchhiked to our refugio and then we tried our hand at hitchhiking to no avail. Our friends hitchhiking ride actually came back to get us and saved us the 1.5 hike in the rain to our refugio, Passo Valparola.
The cable car
View from the bottom, no pics from the top as it was all fog
Entrance to a WWII bunker
Day 4 Hike 9.3km (5.8mi) - Valparola to Cortina 400m (1300ft) up 300m (1000ft) down (chair lift down and a car ride)
From Valparola we hiked to back to the same cable car we had came down yesterday, the morning was clear so we thought it would be good to go up and see the views we missed yesterday.
From the top, look back over what we hiked the day before
What we were going to hike today, Cinque Torri on the left
We rode the the cable car back down and then hiked up to Averau, the right-ish butte in the above image. I originally wasn't excited about the hike up to Averau and the surrounding area but it turned out to be one of the most amazing hikes of the trip and provided stunning views. The trail even got tricky at one point.
Peaks to the west
Lagzoui at the top of the right mountain
Averau in the distance
Valley behind Averau
The famous Cinque Torri (5 Towers)
We stopped for lunch at Rifugio Averau, then took and easy hike further down to Rifugio Scoiattoli. Trekked around Cinque Torri, thought it would be short but was a tad more adventurous than we thought. Instead of hiking down (340m/1115ft) off the mountain we took the ski lift down the hill. And instead of walking into Cortina, our destination for the night, we would wait on the bus.
Walking in between the rocks of Cinque Torri
While waiting we thought we'd try our hand at hitchhiking again and we were lucky enough to get picked up by a French couple from Toulouse who had previously lived in Houston!
Rebe and the poncho in the rain while walking in Cortina
We had to do a mini luggage retrieval so that our luggage would get sent to our final destination at the end of our hiking. We enjoyed dinner at another German style restaurant that we didn't get to try a few days earlier when we were previously in Cortina.
Day 5 Hike 6.9km (4.3mi) - (Cortina) Cinque Torri to Croda da Lago 437m (1434ft) up 627m (2057ft) down
We were supposed to be picked up by a taxi organized by our tour company and after waiting and waiting it never came. We got in touch with the taxi and they said it was canceled by the tour operator (the taxi was actually reconfirmed but the operator missed the email...).
As we were waiting some friends from earlier in the trip walked by our hotel and told us they were catching the bus to the location we wanted to go. So we joined them on the bus.
The bus stopped at the same location where we came down the mountain yesterday and we planned to ride the chair lift up and skip the hike up the mountain (350m / 1148ft, the same hike down we skipped yesterday). But the lift was closed due to wind and the 6 of us didn't feel like hiking up in addition to what we already had planned. We then reached back out to the taxi and they sent a car for us that would take us up the mountain on a private road.
From the hotel in Cortina
Views looking backwards on the trail
View of Averau and Cinque Torri from the last ridge
The lake next to Crodo de Lago
We then hiked down through a forest and then up a ridge for another glimpse of Cinque Torri.
We emerged from the woods and saw a lake with the refugio. The afternoon was spent inside playing games in the refugio before dinner.
Day 6 Hike 17.5km (10.9mi) - Crodo de Lago to Coldai 949m (3114ft) up 755m (2477ft) down
The hike began with a climb up a ridge in front of the refugio that gave amazing views of the surrounding ranges and even looks down on to Cortina d'Ampezzo below. After cresting the ridge we walked down another valley to a road that eventually led us to Citte di Fiume refugio where we stopped for a pastry.
(Left to right) Mountains, Croda de Lago and Cortina d'Ampezzo
Next we hiked along another ridge but this time through a wooded forest. Still on a downhill descent from the first ridge we crossed. Eventually this downhill led to a road where we found Refugio Passo Staulanza and we had an amazing lunch here.
View looking up from Crodo de Lago
View from the top of ridge seen in the above image
View from the final ridge before the refugio
Refugio Coldai
The trail continued down the road, then forked to a dirt road which led us to a farm and that's when the uphill started. Not just a gentle rise, it was more of a clawing up a grass hill. Once over the green monster we descended into another valley before we had to climb a literal mountain to get to our refugio on the cliff.
This was also the first location where they had water restrictions on the showers. Other hikers had mentioned a 25L limit where you could turn the water off and on to accomplish your washing. Here it was 6 minutes, water on or off. It's doable, even more doable when you don't get any hot water...
Dinner was interesting but more so frustrating. All the other refugios when checking in would inform you of the dinner menu and at the time also take your order. Here, they had 1 waiter for 15 or so tables. Waiter was taking orders 1 at a time and then you would get served. I think it took us 1.5 hours to get food for dinner.
From the next morning looking back at Coldai (opposite view from the previous image)
Day 7 Hike 11.2km (7mi) - Coldai to Vazzoler 472m (1550ft) up 750m (2460ft) down (includes detour to Tissi)
Off the back of Refugio Coldai the trail led up a small hill that overlooked this amazing valley with a small lake below.
After the lake was a small hill that led to an even larger valley and down we ascended until we found the split for refugio Tissi. With a another 400m climb to the top, we had a thick hot chocolate to warm up on this cool morning. These last two days have been brutally cold and windy in the mornings.
Valley just past the lake and view of Refugio Tissi up on the highest peak
View coming down from Refugio Tissi
From the top of Tissi we headed back down and down some more through some woods, then a meadow and finally a road to our destination of Refugio Vazzoler.
Day 8 Hike 17.7 (11mi) - Vazzoler to Agordo (the Hike to Hell) 660m (2172ft) up 1677m (5500ft) down
Just like the first day of hiking, you have to get back off the of mountain, so we started our descent towards Agordo, which is a small town in the mountains of the Dolomites. It was a typical downhill stroll at first just down a wide gravel-like road. Midway down the road our map had us veer into the woods and then climb up 1500ft over a couple of passes. Maybe the fatigue was setting in, or maybe we were just tired of hiking over mountains but this was another brutal slog but at least we have a few good views on the last day.
Mountains in front of Vazzoler
Elephant formation
Rebe finishing the last of the epic views
After reaching the top of the passes, we started our descent down 4000 feet into the town of Agordo. The first section through the woods were typical downhill hiking, but as we emerged back into civilization the trail turned to asphalt and the road seemingly got steeper. A few miles of road then led to another trail that ran along the river for a good while before ultimately spitting us out into a neighborhood in town. The bus ran every hour and we were walking into town as the bus was scheduled to leave, and we thought we had missed it so we were making plans for gelato. We decided just to take a glance at the bus station and lo and behold our bus was trying to leave the station but the driver spotted us and stopped for us. Right on time.
40 minutes later we were in Belluno and another 10 minutes of walking through town we had made it to our hotel. Dinner was next door at La Buca, pizza was served followed by some pine cone grappa (yes, pine cone).
Day 9 - Belluno to Venice
The regional train to Venice left Belluno at 1020 and after 2 hours we were in at Venice Mestre station (technically the one next to it). Our hotel was on the opposite side of the tracks, but there was seemingly no access across the tracks. After 30 minutes of debate and walking around (thanks for nothing Google) we decided to take a bus ride into Venice proper to catch another bus back out of Venice just to get to our hotel.
We caught the same bus back into Venice to do some last minute sightseeing of the city, since we were so unlucky with our train ride we got into Venice at 230 and and typically by this time most restaurants stop serving large lunches and typically only have snacks or tiny sandwiches from 230-7. We stopped in a small wine bar for a couple of negronis and a few small sandwiches.
Gondola across the grand canal
After snack lunch we had some time to go visit one of the other secret impressive churches in Venice. This was on the other side of the island and it was 30 minutes by boat or 30 minutes walking and we decided to take the walk since we'd seen everything by boat already, well maybe not the smaller gondola canals.
The church is called The Church of Santa Maria Assunta or Chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta detta I Gesuiti. From the outside it's really nondescript but the interior is spectacular. Unfortunately for us they had scaffolding up and it was covering most of the central nave but the area above and behind the altar were visible. And the main altar has these marble spiraled columns which were simply amazing. While we were in the church, we were basically alone because it's not a famous church. So if you find yourself in Venice and want to see something off the beaten path and cool check this place out.
Web image so you can see what I couldn't due to the scaffolding
From the church we ventured over to the cemetery of the city, which is an entirely separate island. It was only open for another 30 minutes so we ran around, didn't see much but it was a good adventure.
Cemetery from afar
We were close to the ghetto ebraico or Jewish ghetto, which was actually the first Jewish ghetto in Europe and is still home to many Venetian Jews. The area has a few museums and synagogues, and I think the original island (Venice is not one big island but many many small ones) is the complete ghetto. I feel like some of the bridges had gates or doors marking the edges of the area, I'm sure a tour would have told me more but we just didn't have time or a plan today.
Jewish ghetto main square
We were going to have dinner in the area but after reading a few of the recent reviews we decided to go to another place recommended by a friend which was again another 30 minute walk back across Venice. Again, we could have taken the boat but this time walking was actually faster, seems like Venice is like Houston takes 30 minutes to get anywhere.
After dinner we had gelato at Pinguino, which was closed the last time we tried to get some late evening gelato.
Then it was off to the hotel for our travel back home the next day.
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