The Mighty Dolomites!

With a weekend free to ourselves due to Trey’s decision to forgo playing soccer, I immediately went the my list of places that we would like to see while we are in Europe. The thought of crisp mountain air and fall colors was difficult to resist, even with a five hour drive in front of us. We decided to take the kids out of school a little early (Had to arm wrestle with them on this one :>) and packed the car for a family road trip on Friday the 12th of October, our destination “The Dolomite Mountains”.

The Dolomites (Dolmite in Italian) are very well known here in Europe as they not only possess some of the finest ski runs on the continent, but also are renowned for their hiking and rock climbing challenges. Cortina (A chic ski village that attracts the rich and famous from around the world) was the host of the 1956 Winter Olympics. The Mountain range is relatively new to this earth per Mountain standards which is evidenced by the jagged peaks that stand like rock sculptures above the alpine forest. Our drive took us due North, through Modena (Where Pavoriti was recently buried) and the “Trento” where some of Italy’s best grapes for Vino Bianco are grown. The landscape was amazing flat for the first three hours or so and then suddenly we began to climb. As the temperature dropped and the leaves turned golden, the scenery began to change as dramatically as the language spoken on the streets and the signs on the road way. We were now near the Austrian boarder, in a land that at one time was a part of Austria before Mussolini seized control of this mountainous alpine wonderland on behalf of Italia in the 1940’s.

The Dolomites are officially a part of Italia, but for the first time I felt that I was in Germany. The language, the food, the architecture and even the clothes were distinctively Germanic.

Any thoughts of this being a five hour drive to Big Bear were completely wiped out the minute we got there as dusk was setting in. The people were warm and friendly and the scenery was nothing short of stunning. The kids loved it in the Dolomites as hiking is an enjoyable family past time for them. We took a two hour nature walk on Saturday and followed that up with a gondola ride to the crest of one of the highest summits in this mountain range. The views were the greatest I have ever seen. We were looking down on the clouds and across the skyline could see several massive glaciers! Our altitude was about 8500 feet above sea level. The kids were enamored with the numerous wild Mountain goats that we ran across over the two days in this dramatic region. In the end Anna and I decided that this was the most beautiful mountain scenery that we have ever encountered and a place that we would return to again without question. To place this into perspective, we have been blessed to spend time in the Canadian Rockies, The Andes Mountains of Peru, The Grand Tetons of Wyoming and the Remarkables of New Zealand (Where they filmed Lord of the Rings), but none of these places possessed the combination of raw mountain beauty combined with intimate access to the mountains themselves. We literally could drive right up to the base of many of the peaks that jetted up over one thousand feet above our heads.

Remember the Dolomites in your travel plans. You will be glad you did!