We arrived in Berlin with one business day to check in at the language school, register with the city (the all important Anmeldung), and open a bank account. With Claire's awesome German and nice weather we accomplished all these tasks so we could come home to our temporary apartment and repack for a weeks adventure in Italy. We left the next morning in dreary weather to fly to Venice for our summer holiday. Our destination - The Dolomites for a few days of European hut hopping.
The northeastern Dolomites are in the German speaking region of Italy so while the restaurant fair switched to pizzas and pasta, the first language of 70% of the population is German and unlike Switzerland or Austria their is no strong local dialect or accent. We spent our first night in Bolzano, a bikers' paradise with an amazing bike trail through the city as well as along the Adige River.
In the morning we wound our way up to the Val Gardena, an area crawling with every kind of accommodation for Europeans on vacation and amazing access to the mountains via gondola, bus, trail or chairlift. We spent the first afternoon walking the valley floor along the path of the planets (spaced out according to scale). Flying overhead were all kinds of helicopters, they were having a helicopter festival and tons of people were out getting rides. A little crazy for a quiet hiking valley.
Monday we finally began our hütte hopping adventure and did the first day Euro style. We took a gondola part way up the mountain, hiked through lots of cow pastures, lunched at one hut, switchbacked up and over a pass via light via ferretta to another high "meadow" with lots of huts and chair lifts. Ne'er a sign of wilderness to be found even after hiking all day.
The view was lovely and the trails well signed. No sign of sunshine so we quickly started walking to our hut, took a rest on the porch of another hut during the afternoon hailstorm and kept on trekking hoping to avoid a downpour. No such luck, but then here is the advantage to huts. We didn't have to put up a tent or cook in the rain. Instead we had to figure out the conventions of Italian huts. You can't just sit anywhere as people stake out tables and they try to carefully orchestrate who sits where so groups of all sizes can be accommodated. The next night the hut staff placed our names at tables to help. The first night we just had to follow our noses which included my faux pas the next morning when I attempted to sit at a different table. Not allowed even though most of the people were gone before we had breakfast. Fortunately the weather cleared up by the evening so we could go on an after dinner hike and thus not be trapped in the dining room all evening.
We hiked for two more days up and over various ridges and around the Langkopfel, waiting for the moment when the sky would clear for a full view of the Dolomites. Alas this never came to pass, though we did manage to escape further downpours and get a few views of the shorter peaks. As someone who desperately needs to see the whole vista to make sense of the geography, I was sad, but now have a reason to return to the Dolomites in search of a view. We did manage to see one of my favorite Alpen sites - a refugio way up high where anywhere else you would have to do some serous mountain climbing, fully accessible by a tram.
Then we headed off to Venice in search of sunshine and Italian Italy. The sun cooperated and after walking an hour through Venice to find our hotel we were ready for a few days of relaxation. After five days of hearing no English we were thrust into the heart of tourist city where we wondered what percentage of the people out an about are actually Venician citizens. Our hotel was close to the water so we spent the afternoon strolling along the water towards some gardens at the tip of Venice managing to avoid the crowds and simply bask in the warmth of the sun.
The gondolas cruising through the canals are certainly classic Venice and quite and amazing site. I was surprised to know that the positions are coveted and passed down in families and the boats themselves are made from 17 different kinds of wood. We wished we had a double kayak of our own so that we could explore Venice by the canals all on own own. I loved how all the major deliveries are done by boat and was excited to stumble upon the UPS boat making its rounds. After two days of eating gelato, relaxing the warm air, and marveling at a city built upon logs jammed into mudflats we headed "home" to Berlin (via a 6 hour delay).
