The Italian Dolomites: Val Gardena
It was only a short drive from the Alpe di Siusi to what would be our base for 3 days, Ortisei, the main village of the Val Gardena. Fun fact for the linguists: the majority language in the area is actually Ladin, a Romance language which is now the officially recognized language in South Tyrol. This charming town of just under 5000 people had everything we needed and was centrally-located, serving as a good jumping-off point for the region.
Seceda
Capitalizing on the sunny skies, our first stop in Ortisei was the Seceda Ridgeline. To get there, you take the Ortisei-Furnes gondola, which connects you with the Furnes-Seceda cable car part way up the mountain to take you the rest of the way. We ascended up and up before finally disembarking, and within a few steps, were bowled over by the sheer magnitude of the vista. The word breathtaking is bandied about a lot when describing different landscapes, particularly in the Dolomites, but this truly took my breath away. It is hard to put into words the feeling of standing atop the ridge, turning round like Julie Andrews atop her iconic hilltop.
Once we'd had our fill looking back at the Alpe di Siusi and the mountain groups surrounding it, we turned our attention to the feature presentation, the Seceda Ridgeline. To reach the ideal viewpoint, we had to make our way up a long, fairly steep incline. My parents, rightfully so, took their time in making their way up the wide dirt path. I was eager to catch a glimpse of the mountain tops while the clouds had parted, so I scampered up the hillside, huffing and panting--getting in my cardio for the week.
The steeply sloping ridge was stunning, a rocky behemoth that looked as if it had erupted from the earth in a fiery blaze before hardening into stone. The stark strata laid bare, a history of past ages written into layers of rock. At the crest of the hill, you can also checkout an iron circular that points out and names the specific surrounding mountains.
I made my way down the winding staircase until the trail levelled out, and I could start walking towards the Fermeda Towers. The dirt trail was fairly narrow but afforded beautiful views of the valley below. At one point, I looked up at one of the rocky outcroppings, and a small wedding was taking place (I later overheard on the cablecar ride down that they were from the US/Canada who had left at like 3 am to hike in for sunrise). At the base of the towers, the trail was closed off, except to rock climbers. As the clouds had swept in and draped themselves over the mountaintops, I loitered a bit longer to see if they'd clear again.
However, the clouds seemed to have settled in for the long haul, and so I turned around to make my way back down the trail and rejoin my parents, stopping to look back every so often at the sun-dappled spires and rolling grassy hills. Definitely one of the highlights of our time in the Dolomites.
Road tripping through Val Gardena
One of the great joys of renting a car while traveling is the freedom that it affords you. Sure, there are always the challenges of figuring out strange road signs, acclimating to the cultural driving temperament, the often sheer tininess of roads in a foreign country. But there is nothing quite like hitting the open road and having the freedom to go wherever you want and, crucially, stop whenever you want. We set out from Ortisei excited about our road trip adventure (with only a brief U-turn back to the AirBnB 10 minutes out when my Dad realized he'd forgotten his camera).
We had a few rough destinations in mind: a picturesque church in Colfosco and a set of waterfalls that were supposed to be quite pretty. But the real aim was to just meander our way through the Val Gardena, stopping at our leisure. It didn't take long out of Ortisei to already find sweeping mountain vistas. Unlike our way in to Alpe di Siusi, where there seemed to be a dearth of pull-outs, mercifully they were plentiful here. An early one happened to be next to a plot of land with horses, grazing near the pull-out, who made charming subjects against the craggy mountain background.
The odd cow also made cameo appearances in our shots.
My mother worked her mojo on the weather to keep the rain and clouds at bay ('twas a running joke on the trip because she has somewhat verifiable weather-altering abilities that she can leverage if needed). Given that the majority of these mountain roads were relatively narrow, barely two cars wide, I had assumed I was going to be a much more anxious a driver than I ended up being. Though it definitely made for very focused driving--one's mind could not wander lest you drive off a cliff or sideswipe an oncoming Porsche. There were an abundance of fancy automobiles (Porsches, Ferraris, Audis, etc.) zipping around the corners, and I do understand, as these are the kinds of roads where those cars actually make sense.
I had never before encountered so many hairpin turns in sequence, just one after another. Looking at a map, it's as if it were drawn by a seismograph in the middle of recording an earthquake. Though I will say, once you get into the rhythm of it, it is a lot of fun to drive. The speed limits for these roads were often 60 km/hr, which seemed an alarmingly fast speed to be taking these corners and navigating the narrowness. But even at the lower speed I was driving, it was great fun to be carving up the tarmac like a snowboarder down a mountain, feeling what seemed like g forces (though not really) as the car whipped around corners.
Our search for the waterfalls were led somewhat astray by Google Maps, as it took us significantly farther south than necessary and into a random town. But at least we had picturesque views to keep us company (and the odd pit stop for gelato, naturally).
We eventually followed our travel book's specific directions, right down to which of two pull-outs to park at to find these waterfalls. The falls were immediately off the side of the road, through a crop of trees and down a muddy hill. We carefully picked our way along the slippery rocks to take our requisite pictures.
We continued our journey onwards in search of our second planned destination, the St. Vigilius Parish Church in Colfosco. The clouds had rolled in by the time we arrived in the small town, one of a seemingly endless string of picturesque, neatly-manicured, flower-box-rampant villages that populate the region. We took a stroll around the church, admiring its almost austere facade against the stark mountainscape. Once we'd had our fill, we headed back to Ortisei, just as light rain started to fall (my mother really is magical!).
Sleeping & Eating
My general preference when I travel is to try and stay in AirBnBs, A) because they're usually more cost-effective , and B) because they can feel a bit more personal. I found us a charming little ground floor 2-bedroom apartment, just a short walk from the center of town. Amusingly, what would become common on this trip, is that we would stay in family apartments that would have a master bedroom, which my parents would take, and a kids room, with bunk or twin beds for me.
Mauriz Keller Restaurant
For our first night in Ortisei, I suggested one of the recommended restaurants on my list, Mauriz Keller. It was a vast restaurant, with a network of interconnected rooms. The menu was similarly vast, page after page of numbered options. We started off with an appetizer of Schlutzkrapfen pasta filled with spinach, butter, and grana cheese. I had a hankering for mushroom risotto, and Mom ordered lasagna alla bolognese. Dad opted for grilled chicken with potatoes and rosemary. The food arrived lightning fast--I'm not sure I've ever had food come that quickly, and it was delicious. The lasagne was outstanding, and my risotto was rich and flavourful. The only blemish on a stellar set of dishes was Dad's chicken, which was a touch dry. But otherwise excellent, enough so that we came back for lunch the next day.
Sotriffer Restaurant & Wine Bar
The stand-out dinner, perhaps the best of our entire trip, was at Sotriffer, a classy, finer dining establishment offering Italian and Mediterranean dishes. Relative to Mauriz Keller, it had a significantly more curated menu to choose from. We started things off with Iberico meatballs in a cheese fondue, which were absolutely sublime. At first bite, I knew this was going to be a fantastic meal. Dad was bold and tried a venison tenderloin with celeriac cream and wine-poached pears. Now, he typically orders his red meat on the medium to medium-well side, which thankfully, our server flatly refused (nicely)--indicating that it's served medium rare. Mom had saffron risotto with raw scampi and buffalo cheese, and I opted for cheese tortellini with venison ragout. Everything, as predicted, was outstanding--flavourful, complex, and beautifully-presented. My dad even enjoyed the medium-rare venison (I could feel his culinary boundaries expanding). We couldn't decide on a dessert to share, so ordered a chocolate lava cake and a mascarpone cheesecake. To top things off, they offered me a dram of local grappa on the house to cap off the evening.
