Woke
up to it SNOWING outside!! Yeah baby! No sunrise – a fair bit of
cloud, but the snow is falling. Not heavy, but it is enough to get
me excited!
We’ve
decided we will stay here another night. We’ll go out today and
look around and see the sights. Be tourists and not photographers
today (we'll try at least), and then it gives us a good base to come back to. Steve
hates packing up constantly – it is exhausting all of this check in
at 4pm+ and unpack and pack up and be out by 9am. By the time you go
have dinner (and most don’t start serving till 7.30pm), it makes it
a late night so you don’t have time to do anything unless you stay
up past midnight doing your homework on where you’ll go the next
day etc.
It
was about 11am when we jumped in our highly powerful hire car (not)
and headed back up to the cascades where we shot with Luca the other
day in the rain. Today it was covered in a light dusting of snow
which made it very pretty.
We
stayed there for about an hour or so taking many photos of the
cascades.
The snow looked quite pretty on the tree's!
We
then headed to Alleghe which is a town on a large lake in a beautiful
valley! The drive in was gorgeous – the autumn colour is something
to behold and peaking from behind the clouds were these very
impressive mountains! We came in using the south route from Vigo De
Fassa up over the San Pelligrino Pass. The snow had fallen a lot
overnight and it was very very pretty!
It was starting to snow again!
Alleghe
was not its prettiest today with the snow falling and a bit of wind across the lake.
It would be so lovely to visit in summer or spring – or when it is
not snowing! We would have loved to capture the reflections in the water. Next time maybe!
As
we had traversed this road 3 or 4 times now, we decided to try a
different route home, which was the northern route which took us
through the town of Penia.
We
had to turn back on Passo Fedaia when we hit a big snow storm.
Things went from ‘awwwhhh isn’t that pretty snow falling” to
“OMG are we going to make it out alive??!!” This all happened
within about 10mins!
We
tried to get as far up the Passo Fedaia as we could, when we just
couldn’t gain any traction and those guard rails were getting
pretty close with us slip sliding.
Steve
pulled a hand-brake manoeuvre on a hair pin bend so we could turn
back around. Then we had to head back down the Passo Fedaia – down
hill, with no snow tyres, with no snow chains and it was slippery.
We
had a van behind us who was obviously keeping an eye out for the
stupid tourists making their way down the hill at 1km p/h and taking
up ALL of the road without the right gear for these conditions! They
eventually passed us when we had better traction & we were out of
danger.
I
swear to god, I thought we were going to write off the car! Steve
is a bloody legend, and all of those years of him being a hoon
certainly paid off today and he got us off the Pass without hitting a
thing!
I video'd most of this.... great memories to look back on when you are on dry safe ground!
When
we got back into the valley and the roads were just wet, we then had
to make our way back up the San Pelligrino Pass. Not sure how bad
things would be, we were making sure we had food & water and warm
things to wear should we have no choice but to sleep in the car
overnight!
But
thankfully, the snow plough had been out and the roads were clear
enough for us to have enough traction to get through. But the whole
area was blanketed in snow! Amazing to think just an hour or so
before hand we had been there and it was only covered in a light
dusting of snow.
So
having a dose of reality this afternoon was a good thing. We were
thinking about heading to West Italy to the Alps, but not without
snow chains, or snow tyres. At this stage we give the Alps a miss.
We will head towards Lake Bled. That’s still going to be high, but
hopefully not as bad as here, and we’ll get snow, but not a
diabolical situation.
Also
the Pass that Luca recommended for us to visit which is in Solvenia –
Mangat, its right up there with one of the most dangerous roads in
the world. Hmm…. We might give that one a miss too. Steve
showed me pictures of it with snow on it….. I am not sure our
relationship would survive us driving on that bit of road!
Here's a bit of snow falling!
Once
we were safely back in Vigo Di Fassa, we got warm & had a quick
coffee before jumping back in the car so I could shoot the church
high on the hill behind our apartment which I can just see out of the
kitchen window!
Saint
Giuliana & Saint Giovanne. Well, you’d think it would be easy
to drive to a church wouldn’t you? Well, no, it wasn’t easy at
all. We tried a few locations from town, walking up very steep
hills only to have other hills block the view. How damn hard do they
make it??
Finally
Steve found a way for us to get a view of the damn thing, and we
stood in a paddock off a main road to shoot it just on sunset. Not
that there was any sun of course due to the snow and clouds, but it
made for a gorgeous photo! I am a happy girl! I wanted that
‘quintessential” photo of a church on a hill and I now have one!
Thank you Italy!
Dinner
was high up on a hill… yes…. The most furthest away hill Steven
could find! Turns out we were there earlier at the ski run trying to
find the church! With it being minus 4 degree’s, we could have
driven, but no, we walked. Crikey, this cold air and hiking hills is
really no good for my lungs, especially when you walk into a
Trattoria that has its heating set to 25 degrees.
Guess
what Steve had… yep, spaghetti Carbonara. I had spaghetti Ragu
(bolognaise) and it was delicious! I love how they put bacon (spek)
in everything – just like the way I used to make it!
The
walk home was epic, because it was all down hill! But we had to be
careful with all the ice on the roads, it made it very slippery!
Steve nearly slid all the way back to the apartment.
When
we got back to the apartment our hostess Iris had left us a little
gift – a Love Heart key chain! It matches everything in the
apartments which are full of hearts everywhere you look! So happy to
have stayed here, its been brilliant!
Buona Notte Vigo Di Fassa
xxx
