Gal Meets Globe: Italy and the Dolomites August 27-29, 2012

Dubrovnik to Milan was a two hour flight. (EasyJet). We rented a car in Milan and started our journey to the Dolomites. We stopped near Verona to stay for a night.

Palazzo Arzaga is one of our favorite places to stay. Scott took the boys there on a BMW driving and golfing trip in 1999 when they first opened it to the public. Scott and I went back in 2002. It was an old private residence (palace) built in the 1600's and turned into a golf/spa/hotel in 1999. There are amazing frescos on the walls and the architecture on the interior has thick walls with marble carvings. We played 9 holes of golf the day we got there, then had a couple of great massages.

Beautiful Frescos on the walls and in some of the rooms

Lounging by the beautiful pool

Golfing on the Jack Nicklaus course

When we left home, at the last minute we switched luggage from wheeled duffles to just duffles because a lot of the small planes we will be on in Africa and Australia will only take duffles. After only 10 days out, we decided that was a mistake! It is too heavy to carry a large duffle and a backpack.!! We decided to send some clothes home to make our bags lighter. Hopefully they will get there. After arranging all of the FedX logistics, we drove north to our destination of
Cortina d' Ampezzo. It is a ski town that held the Olympics in 1956. The further north we drove, the homes became less Italian Stucco and more Tyrolian. The border of Austria is very close, and there is a lot of Swiss, German, and Austrian influence.

The Mountains are amazing. They are very jagged and shoot up into the sky. It was a very pretty drive for a couple of hours.

On our drive in to Cortina d' Ampezzo

Staying the first night at Sporting Hotel Villa Blu was convenient for hiking out the back door up onto the ski runs.

Sporting Hotel Villa Blu

Afternoon and evening hike up the ski run area

A private cabin on the way up the mountain

Looking down on the town of Cortina d' Ampezzo

Our hike was beautiful and it felt good to walk and get the old heart rate going again. Exploring the mountain and around town, we decided to try the Cristallo Hotel on the other side of the mountain. Sporting Hotel Villa Blu was very quaint but the Cristallo is more updated and has a spa and we got a beautiful suite with a nice view.

Our room inside the Cristallo

The view from our room at Cristallo

The 1956 Olympics were held in Cortina d' Ampezzo. Riding 3 different funiculars to the very top of the ski area, the terrain became very moonscape. We climbed to the top of a ridge and lay down on a rock and pretended to be rock lizards soaking up the sun.