31
Aug 12

Bolzano to Lake Garda

After another day in the mountains, we decided to leave Cortina, and make our way deeper into Italy. Our first location was Bolzano – a small, and beautiful city just to the West of Cortina.

Gina in the streets of Bolzano

Gina in the streets of Bolzano

Bolzano Cathedral

Bolzano Cathedral

After walking the streets, and visiting the city’s many market stalls in the rain, we headed into Chiesa dei Francescani (St. Francis Church) – where we got our first glimpse of an Italian cloister – “dating from the fourteenth century, is Gothic with Gothic arches trefoil, and all decorated with an elaborate series of frescoes”.

After another solid pizza, we headed out of Bolzano, South, towards Lake Garda, where we would setup camp for the night, right on the shores of the lake. A massive storm was brewing, so we chilled that night at the campsite bar, before going to bed.

Gina at Lake Garda

Gina at Lake Garda

Lake Garda Panorama

Lake Garda Panorama


29
Aug 12

Via Ferrata Michielli Strobel & Falzarego pass

We woke up at the crack of dawn – had ourselves a nice camping breakfast, and hit the first Via Ferrata of the trip – Via Ferrata Michielli Strobe – Gina had bought a beautiful book on the Via Ferrata, (will get a link) – and due to perfect planning, the Michielli Strobel Via Ferrata happened to be located right across the way from our campsite – the mountain of wall facing us.

We hiked up a pretty steep rocky ground, up and away from the road, through the trees until we eventually reached the plaque that marked the beginning of the route. We kitted up in our beautiful Ferrata kit, and headed towards the first obstacle, which, for me, was the very first ladder. I very quickly felt uneasy, and disappointingly, completely froze and had to turn back – something to this day I feel terrible about – as it wasn’t a great start to our Via Ferrata hiking trip.

We back tracked, back down the same steep slope we worked so hard on going up, and seeing all the people heading up towards the starting point – which made me feel worse.

Gina at the start of Via Ferrata Michielli Strobel

Gina at the start of Via Ferrata Michielli Strobel

Italian Dolomites

Italian Dolomites

We arrived back at the campsite, and decided to head up the next valley over – to not waste a good day – and hike up Mount Lagazuoi at the top of Falzarego Pass. The scenery was fantastic, and once we parked Claude at the bottom of the mountain, and checked out the tourist shop at the bottom, we headed up the mountain – but yet again, I had to back out as I was still feeling the nerves of my earlier attempt – Gina went ahead, as she’s awesome – and reached the top of Mount Lagazuoi without any trouble. She had a great time up at the top, taking in all the views, and shooting amazing panoramas of the view across all the valley. Then, she took the Lagazuoi cable car right back down.

View from Mount

View from Mount Lagazuoi

View from Mount

View from Mount Lagazuoi

We drove steadily back down the pass, and stopped off at Cortina – where we grabbed a pizza, and headed back to Stinky (our aptly named tent), where the moon was just rising behind the first mountain of our Ferrata trip.

Gina's panorama from Mount Lagazuoi

Gina’s panorama from Mount Lagazuoi

Mount

Mount

Pizza time!

Pizza time!

Also, on this night – my beloved camera, the camera I learned photography with, the Canon EOS 400D died.


28
Aug 12

Freiburg (DE) to Cortina d’Ampezzo (IT)

(Due to some reason or another, I forgot to write this back in 2012 – so now, 2 and a half years later, I’m attempting to remember the details of our epic trip we did together to Italy).

After filling Claude to the max with all of our gear, we hit the road on what would be a 6 hour drive from Freiburg to Cortina d’Ampezzo – which would be our first stop on our Italian vacation.

We drove, towards lake Konstantz, through to Innsbruck in Austria, past Lago di Landro (pictured below with Gina) and on to the beautiful Cortina d’Ampezzo – where we would stay for a few days. We found ourself a stunning wee campsite called Olympia – and pithed our tent on the banks of the river that ran through the camp.

Gina at Lago di Landro

Gina at Lago di Landro

Gina & Claude at Cortina

Gina & Claude at Cortina

Due to the epic drive – we just toured Cortina in the evening, taking in all the epic views that the Dolomites had to offer, and had our first pizza of the trip.