Last Day In Italy, Or Were We Already In Austria?

Two small snails ‘hurried’ across our patio…….

 

We were expecting rain on Saturday morning, but the clouds just hung gloomily in the sky, so mid-morning we set of into Cortina D’Ampezza.  It was a lovely walk across flower-filled meadows to the picturesque town surrounded by the spectacularly dramatic Dolomites.  We stayed for lunch and noted that the menus were now much more Germanic, there was, of course, still pizzas and pastas aplenty, but there was also a lot of würst and steaks and potatoes.

 

As we were finishing our meal the rain came tumbling down and we had to walk the thirty-minute journey back to the campsite in raincoats.  By the time we got back to Eileen we were both soaked through and everything had to be hung up to dry.  There was no way we were going to go out again that day.

We were expecting more rain on Sunday morning, but the sun was shining through the sky light.  Even the locals were surprised as the weather forecast was still saying ‘Rain’.

 

We pulled in to a gas station but found we couldn’t get to a pump because we were surrounded by fifteen men on motorbikes and more of them kept arriving; it felt like we were in the pits at some MotoGP.  When we did manage to fill Eileen up, we wanted to check her tyre pressure and had to wait again for some bikers to get themselves sorted and move on, so that we could get to that machine.  It took ages, but we finally left Cortina and headed up the Passo Tre Croce (1,809m)

 

On the road down the other side, we stopped beside the beautiful Lago di Misurina, donned the boots, packed the raincoats and walked right around the lake.  It was a lovely walk and I do like a flat walk, especially with spectacular views of mountains that I don’t have to stagger up. It started raining just as we got to the last two-hundred metres, so we ducked in to a café at the far end of the car park and waited with cups of hot chocolate, for the rain to stop.

 

 

The road up to the Tre Cimi di Lavaredo has a toll for campervans of €34 (about $52Aus, or £27), which is extortionate; that’s two nights in a campsite with swimming pool and bathrooms!!!  Even bicycles had to pay €10.  We had already seen so much beautiful scenery on Friday that we really didn’t think we could see anything even more spectacular, even if we paid.  But Rodney was raring to go on an uphill hike and an Italian walker stopped to tell him that there was a footpath up to the Passo Tre Cimi, near where we had pulled over; so off he went.  I stayed in Eileen and watched the sunshine and the dark clouds taking it in turns to pass over the stunning mountains, while listening to the heavy bells clanging on the necks of a herd of cows beside Eileen.  They masticated nonchalantly and looked like they might be thinking “what on earth are you doing there in that box with wheels? Come out here and eat some of this lovely green grass”.

 

 

Rodney The Mountain Man got to the top and back down in exactly two hours, beating a chap who looked half his age and twice as fit and was parked a couple of cars along from us. I was proud for him, but glad I hadn’t gone along; it would have taken twice as long and he came back rather wet again from the rain…. More clothes to dry out……!

 

 

 

We made a brief stop to look closely at the incredibly green glacial Dürrensee and then headed north to the main road at Dobbiaco.  We pulled up at Camping Corones in Rasun di Sotto, still in Italy, and were greeted warmly in…. German.  Eeks, I wasn’t ready for that yet, I’m still trying to extract bits of Italian out of my brain cells.  Ah well, tomorrow we’ll be in Austria, so better get the schoolgirl German warmed up and try to stop saying “buongiorno” and “gracie” to everyone.

 

For our last bit of Italian tourism, we stopped to wander around Brunico for an hour.  The brochures quoted that ‘Brunico has won awards for being the happiest small town in Italy’ in 2014 and 2015.  It is also boasts having ‘one of the loveliest shopping streets in all of the South Tyrol’.  We found a nice town, no-one seemed grumpy and the main shopping street was tiny with some nice boutiques and cafés.  We also found a ‘Speck Museum’, which in Italian would be a ‘Prosciutto Museum’; had to pop in there.  It smelt like a meat museum and there was plenty of prosciutto to buy; sliced, in lumps, or a whole piece.  We watched a short video showing how they prepare and store the meat and then, yes, we bought a small lump.

 

It did feel weird still being in Italy, but with all the street and shop signs in German; Stadtgasse, Stegener Strasse, etc., even the name of the town seems to call itself Bruneck rather than Brunico.  I bought a pretzel and a slice of apple strudel and everyone said “Guten tag” and “Danke schöne, so it was obviously time to switch.  We’ve since found out that this part of Italy was actually part of Austria pre 1918, but the locals perhaps haven’t noticed that they’re supposed to be Italian now…..

 

We drove up the Vallo di Tures a.k.a. Tauferer Tal, depending on whether you think you’re still in Italy, or now in Austria.  It was a lovely valley with a few castles, green meadows, pine trees, brown cows and pretty villages and it nearly reached the Austrian border, but not quite, so we drove back down the valley and followed directions to the Brenner Pass.  We had a few issues with trying to work out where to buy a vignette that allowed us to drive on the Austrian motorways, but we finally managed to get one in a café just before we entered Austria.

 

So here we are in Camping Natterersee (what a great name, I keep picturing a lake that keeps talking….) just up the road from Natters and Mutters (people who keep talking) and we’re not far from Innsbruck, so now we know we’re definitely in Austria.  Tomorrow we’ll hop on the free bus and spend a day checking out the city and the local scenery.  Arrividerci Italia.