Day 15 - 6th November 2016

Arrivederci Ortisei

Luca, Steve and I headed off to Passe Rolle. Tim and Scott decided to leave the last day and head to Bologna where they would stay the night. Tim was worried that with 40cm of snow forecast overnight at Passe Rolle that he might not be able to get off the mountain and it might hinder him catching his flight. Fair enough. The mountains are unpredictable, so you have to play it safe.

Such a shame. With the weather turning the way it did, we were probably better leaving the trip the way it was originally planned – with the finish on the Amalfi Coast at Cinque Terra. But you don’t always know for sure. But we have to say that “Mountain-Forecast.com” has been absolutely spot on for our entire trip – almost down to the hour correct.

Anyway, we said our good-byes to Tim and Scott and we got in our van and drove away! It rained the whole day.

We headed over the mountains, up and down more mountain passes. We went to Lago Carezza but the rain was bad, and the clouds were mostly over the mountain. We tried to have a coffee, but they were closed there – being November ‘n all! Lol

So we drove to another small village and found a small bar open, run by nonna & nonno, where we sat and had cappuccino’s for an hour killing time and keeping out of the rain. Unfortunately the rain had really set in and what mountains we could see before, were long gone behind the cloud. So we decided to keep heading towards Passe Rolle.

We were driving along when I saw a beautiful cascade and I yelled out STOP! Luca obliged and he was very happy he did (he is very fussy when it comes to waterfalls and cascades!). It was just glorious! Moss everywhere. Beautiful little streams of water and some nice cascades.

The rain was still pouring, but we all had a go and taking some images – why not! Funny watching the 3 of us running around in the rain looking for good compositions. We are hoping that it is not raining tomorrow and we will come back to shoot here on our way out to Trento.

We stopped for lunch at a little town (can’t tell you the name of it). Luca wasn’t happy as they only had 1 star rating on Trip Advisor! (I will miss Luca and his never ending quest to find the BEST things only rated on Trip Advisor)!! Lunch was better than 1 star, but it wasn’t the best meal Luca had had before. We both had Pasta with Fungi. When in the mountains, you eat mushrooms because its local and fresh. Steve had pizza with Spek and Brie.

As we headed back up to Passe Rolle, Luca stopped so I could take a photo of a little forrest with trees that were “red” in their autumn colour. It wasn’t ideal, again the rain wasn’t making it easy to stay out there, but I am glad I got an image!

We couldn’t check in until 4pm to our hotel!! What is it with these European places only allowing you to check in after 4pm (after siesta) and they kick you out by 9 or 9.30am! (so they can get the rooms ready before their take their siesta at midday!) OMG!

We chipped in for this hotel as we were supposed to be on the Amalfi Coast which was already paid for & couldn’t be refunded….. 100 Euro each and I have to say, its right up there with one of the worst places we’ve stayed at. They had us in a room with 2 small rooms – and when I say small, I mean SMALL. You can barely walk between the bed & the wall!! The two rooms have no door between them and then there is one bathroom to share and that is also tiny, and there was supposed to be 5 of us in this room!!! OH NO there isn’t !!!

Poor Luca, went to fight for us again. We are the only guests staying here, so its not like they are full. After some negotiating, Luca managed to get himself a single room on his own, so we got the room with all the beds. Ahhh, at least we are not outside tonight where the temperature will fall to minus 15! It’s only 1 night. But it is a shame we have bad weather, & nothing to show for it & have had to pay for a less than adequate room! You get that I suppose – makes it part of the adventure.

But there was a bonus for us – when Steve opened the bedroom window out on the ledge was a bottle of Presecco! Ha ha ha – obviously chilling for the previous guest who had forgotten it was out there….no doubt it has frozen and thawed out a few times I’m assuming! If we drank wine we would have cracked it open, but Steve has left it out there to freeze overnight.

We went for a very quick walk down the street to see the main mountain, and it did show itself for a brief second, but damn it, none of us had cameras or phones with us!!!! Argghhh!! It is spectacular!!!! There was a small church that I would have liked to have shot, especially if the mountain showed itself behind, but alas that was not going to happen.

So we went back to our rooms and got our cameras and we headed off in the opposite direction to the mountain. Looking down the valley to where we had lunch. There looked like nice light against the cloud in the valley etc.

When we stopped the car, the main mountain showed itself again for a brief moment – enough that I could take 1 shot before it disappeared again. It doesn’t show how glorious it really is unfortunately. It feels so close you can reach out and touch it. And its big – really big and its a pretty mountain, it reminded us of Canada.

We hiked for a while. Water everywhere. It was awful – my ‘non-gortex’ 5Tens were getting wet and that isn’t ideal, especially if we are out in the cold tomorrow morning for sunrise. Anyway, we carried on. I hiked up a big bloody hill on my own (what was I thinking?) Anyway, I took some shots….nothing spectacular. I even saw some Edelweiss growing!! They are rare now apparently.

Steve stayed in one spot further down and Luca tried out different compositions. All the while we kept an eye on the main mountain behind us, but it never showed itself – content to stay hidden behind the clouds.

Now back at the hotel drying out my shoes on the hydronic heater and resting before dinner at 7.30pm. We had to pre-order our meals. This will be hilarious as the lady could not speak a word of english….and Luca was having trouble translating (I think he is over it now….). So Steve has SPEK for dinner. Not sure what exactly SPEK will be. Will it be on pizza? Will it just be a slab of SPEK on a plate? Is it like Antipasto? Will it be served with vege’s or polenta? Who knows! Ha ha ha ha – He wont starve as I do have lots of chocolate in the room tonight.

Luca and I are having the “Shin of the Pig”. Hmmm…. Pork Shank I’m guessing, but again, who knows what it is going to be served with. It will be hilarious!! I am really looking forward to the surprise, where as Steve is already dreading it. I am having Strudel for dessert and Steve is having either the Cassata (which he wont eat) or it will be the traditional Saker cake from Austria – the chocolate layer cake. Fingers crossed he gets the Chocolate Cake!

Whooohoooo - I got a Pork Shank!!  It was....interesting.  Quite yummy really, with gravy and some chips.  Steve got a plate of SPEK....yet, just a plate of Spek!  ha ha ha - just like Antipasto!   So he had it with some bread rolls.   I had my strudel which was really nice, and Steve got his Saker Cake - the jam was orange - so he had his favourite!

We have decided to get up really early and get off the mountain.  Whilst I'd love to photograph this mountain here tomorrow, it will mean we will get to Trento later to pick up the hire car, so we will go to a small walk - 20mis along a river with a mountain scape.  From there if there is time we will stop at the little waterfall cascades again...or at Lake Carezza, before going into Trento to pick up our hire car.  We will have one last meal with Luca for lunch - a pizza.  Then we will say our good-byes.  So sad.