On the road again, Going places we’ve never been…!

One last breakfast outside in the Lupaia garden, enjoying the morning sunshine. Our wagon load of luggage wheeled back out to the car in the wicker wagon. After a few “see you laters” or “Arrivederci” and we were once again on the road…

Destination Dolomites! The longest part of our journey was down the Auto Strata. Going through long tunnels through the mountains.

Amazing how many we went through! Take a ticket when you enter the highway and insert the ticket when leaving the Auto Strata. Which then caculates how much you owe. Beings we were foreigners and did not have a pass it was a bit pricey. Around thirty seven Euros from Tuscany to where we exited the highway to begin our ascent up into the mountains. Speed limit was mostly 130 kilometers, changing often. Maybe we didn’t see the police because they are there in camera form. Checking the speed and a picture of the license plate if needed for a ticket by mail! ( hopefully we won’t receive any tickets by mail in the coming months…)

Once we exited the Auto Strata we were in for a real ride in the mountians. Switchbacks, tight roads, and at times no guardrails. Great roads for mountain motor bikes. We saw quite a few of them. While Jeff was shifting gears in our manual Fiat 500, I found myself on the edge of the seat and gripping the armrest a lot of the time! Just not used to it all the height and sheer drop offs.

At one point a camper van and our car met on a curve. The wrong place at the wrong time. Beings we had nowhere else to go, it was our mirror that had to go, Oops. The rest of the trip our car had a Eeyore sort of look to it. With the mirror just dangling as we drove along.

Thank goodness for full coverage on the car!

Finally…we arrived safely at Alta Badia where we would be spending our next two nights. (Thinking we would blog and enjoy the mountain views. Only to realize we enjoyed the mountains more then getting the blogging done!)

Once again we were upgraded to a lovely suite! (Thanks to credit card perks!) Our very own woodburning fireplace in our room. So cozy!

A new place calls for exploring and adventure. Right? After standing on the balcony and taking in the mountains, the stream, and the free range chickens running around. We decided we needed to head outside for some fresh air and a walk beside the stream. Of course I had to find a place to get a feel of the water as well. So very cold!

The decision was to order food to our room. Once again our plans changed! We were told we needed to see the sun set on the mountains. Dinner was spent outside enjoying the the sunset. Watching the rugged mountians turn red with the last rays of sunshine. Feeling the chills of the mountian air after the warmth of the sun has left. We headed up to our room for the warmth of the fire place!

Bonne Notte…”GoodNight”

Leaving Tuscany, Destination Dolomites

Dolomites Mountains

Siena, Montepelciano! Bellisimmo