Oh Dolo-mighty! [Italian Dolomites]
My most common refrain on the Dolomites segment of my Euro trip 2022 was: "It's so beautiful!!" After meandering through the entire country of Slovenia, we tucked ourselves in for an early night in Cortina d'Ampezzo, the cute town that formerly hosted the Winter Olympics (and will run it back in 2026).
Three peaks, three Barbies
For our first full day in the Dolomites, we hiked Tre Cime ("three peaks") for six hours! The views were big; I felt like a speck in this vast world. There were surprisingly large tour groups of elderly folks doing the hike too, which felt very encouraging. They all had hiking poles and boots though, while we found ourselves sliding around gravel paths in sneakers and water shoes (arguably psychotic on my end). We took routes 101 and 105. I would recommend simply turning back after seeing Tre Cime up close for an easier time. BUT if you want to slide down gravel paths too, our route certainly won't be boring!
The matching fits were coincidental. Literally no comment on the dab.
We really lucked out with the weather. Despite initial forecasts of rain by 10 am, it didn't rain at all during our hike. That gave us copious time to take pictures. The matching fits were totally unplanned, I swear.
We worked up an appetite after the hike, so we ate a well-deserved late lunch in Cortina d'Ampezzo. LITTLE DID WE KNOW, this town is extremely athletic. We quickly got humbled when we realized that a 20km race (the Lavaredo Ultra Trail) was occurring right then in the city.
After lunch, we took a stroll around Lake Misurina. Here, we hung out with the kiddos at the park. We were surprised to discover little Asian (perhaps even Asian-American??!) kiddos. Or maybe we were just the kiddos.
We capped off the day by picking up groceries and pizza for dinner, then watching Change Days on Netflix. I recall being quite into the show at the time, but ultimately, it was a pretty boring Netflix Korean reality show that I never finished.
Lake views with a side of copium
The next day, we planned to do a hike along the famed and allegedly beautiful Lake Sorapis. I say allegedly, because we chickened out the day-of and visited Lake Ghedina instead. And by "visited," I mean "took the Olympic cable car up and walked down." The views were... mid, but worthwhile relative to the (low) effort, right? RIGHT?! At any rate, didn't seem like Lake Ghedina was a particularly popular destination. Unlike Tre Cime, where we felt like small ants climbing a hill among a colony of others, there were maybe six other people who visited Lake Ghedina. It was an appropriately hyped destination, with strict private property rules barring picnics, dogs off leashes, and swimming. If anything, we had a better time on the walk back to town: catching a great view of Cortina d'Ampezzo, the mountains, and meadows along a little hamlet called Cadin. Honestly, you could probably just pass through here by car though.
The joke of the day was justifying our choice not to hike Lake Sorapis. It would've been way too touristy! And too tiring! And the weather like, barely held up. Maybe we would've even gotten sick from the higher elevation. Who is to say?!?!
After arriving back in Cortina d'Ampezzo, we did what anyone does in Italy: grab some gelato. Surprisingly, the chocolate store (which had a lot of rizz with its alluring name, Rizzati) strangely only had four flavours: pistachio, hazelnut, coffee, and vanilla. It was creamy and good, although the hazelnut was a bit too overpowering for my liking.
After a (not-so) tiring day, we drove back to the Airbnb for the night. We did laundry and tried drying clothes with a hair dryer, but accidentally broke it. Chaotically, we attempted to dry the clothes by hand with seat cushions and my paper fan. Sometimes, the small moments like these are the most hilarious.
"I love countryside!!"
We started off the next day pretty late, with lunch at a German-style restaurant in the countryside. We also visited Lago di Braies, which was nestled between beautiful mountains and sea views. There were a lot of boats in the water, and randomly... a bunch of wild cows along the path? It was a worthwhile stop, but one that involved a decent amount of driving.
We stayed the night in Canazei, enjoying white pizza and ice cream tarts.
The next day, we visited Alpe de Suisi plauteau — my favourite spot in the Dolomites. I've seen a lot of mountain ranges by now (and especially at this point in the trip across Slovenia and the Dolomites), but this one was distinct for its lush, gentle rolling hills. It was gorgeous. I definitely recommend tromping around the verdant green meadows and/or pastures (is there a difference between these terms?).
We stopped for lunch at Malgo Contrin, where I had a "homemade sausage." Confusingly, this turned out to be more of a hamburger.
Although we paid for the gondola ride, we decided to walk back down to Ortisei. We had a couple near slips in our dresses and inappropriate footwear, but I'd recommend frolicking along this path as long as it's not muddy. We were proud of ourselves for hiking every day (Lake Ghedina counted, right????). It was cool to look back and see how far we climbed down. Below the plateau, some parts got quite steep.
We ended up hanging around Ortisei for gelato and dinner. I got yummy risotto at a place called Four. I can see why people often stay in Ortisei — it has nice resorts, and is in such close proximity to Alpe de Suisi. Unfortunately, we found it a bit out of budget. On the bright side, we stopped for a beauuuutiful sunset view. The mountains looked spectacular, and I couldn't help get Mauve's Easy to Adore You out of my mind: (What a beautiful world; what a beautiful life!) This ended up being the nostalgic backdrop to my summer 2022 recap video. I think editing tools like CapCut and AI video tools are much better at automatically syncing clips to songs, but BACK IN MY DAY, we did this stuff manually using iMovie!!
I'll also fondly associate fun throwbacks with this trip, like Beautiful Girls by Sean Kingston and the Soulja Boy dance. It was so funny re-learning how to crank dat at the B&B after a fun day exploring.
Much deserved R&R
After all the days of hiking, we truly earned a lovely spa day at QC Terme. There's a QC spa in New York now, but let's be real: there's no way it can compete with views of the Dolomites. Aside from the view, the variety of themed rooms, pools, and saunas was unparalleled. We spent 10 hours wandering and relaxing! Highlights included a "Water path" walk with a bunch of cool saunas and pools. I particularly enjoyed a pool with underwater music, mood lamp lighting, and lights emulating constellations in the sky. There were cool relaxation rooms too. I had fun sitting and reading in cozy white eggs, infrared and salt-room saunas, and cute swings.
For food, I'd definitely recommend getting the (healthy) spa lunch, since the 5pm aperatif was pretty lame. We noshed on chips, olives, hunks of cheese, jerky, rosemary pizza, focaccia, and campari. I know it sounds promising when described like that, but it wasn't worth the money. Although I'm not sure I had really embraced "girl-dinner" in 2022... maybe I'd like it more now.
(Lake) Garda my heart
The next day, we had a big drive day to Bologna — marking the end of our lovely trip in the Dolomites. The drive time was quality bonding time, where we talked all about things like relationships and values. We squeezed in one last scenic view by stopping in Sirmione (a town on Lake Garda). Lake Garda is GIGANTIC. You could arguably spend a few days exploring the little lakeside towns. Alas, that wasn't in the cards for us. We had just a mere afternoon in Sirmione. The contemporary down felt like San Marino, California. Once we ventured past the castle walls though, it definitely felt like we were back in old-school Italy. Unfortunately, attempts to hang by the lake with gelato got thwarted by extreme humidity and rain. But that's fine — we were on a clock to deposit the rental car in Bologna, our home-base for the delectable Emilia-Romagna region!
Trip dates: June 22-28, 2022