Happy
Birthday Luca!! :)
We
met in the foyer at 6.45am and we were off in Tim’s volvo to the
sunrise location. A villa with a long tree lined drive. No fog or
clouds. It was going to be an average sunrise, but eh, we were
there, walking through yet another ploughed clay paddock. Gosh these
things are hard to walk through without twisting an ankle or two!
It
was bloody cold out there today! Colder than yesterday morning thats
for sure. Time I started wearing my thermals now. From here we are
heading north, so it will only get colder.
I
wanted to take a video of our morning, but the little orange Nikon
was not in my bag. …. hmmm.. where the hell is it?
Anyway,
we took our photos and waited for the sun to rise higher so we could
capture some shadows on the paddock from the Cyprus tree’s and then
we headed back for breakfast.
We
ate quickly and then packed up in record time and checked out and
then we were off. First to the chemist to get some drugs for Luca
and even Steve got some too! Just a Lemsip type for night time and
some lozenges,...but hey – Steve must be feeling bad if he is happy
to consider taking anything! (at least Luca is also sick so I don’t
have to nag….)
Today
is a long day of driving. Approx 5-7 hours. It will all depend on
the traffic getting through Bologna. I am writing this part whilst
we are in the car, and the traffic is pretty bad on the freeways.
They have been building a new freeway for the past 10 years and it
still isn’t finished!! OMG!! how bad is that?
We
laugh at how the Italians drive – all over the road, no indicators.
Luca drives and texts and weaves in and out of traffic – no
problem!! ha ha ha Apparently Luca drives very slowly and he was averaging 140km/hr!!
Tim
and Scott are in the Volvo. We’ll keep the sick germs to one car
only and let Tim “Schumacher” Poulton get to the Dolomites in
record time (traffic dependant)!
Well,
I think I have lost the orange Nikon camera. Its not in the camera
bag, nor my camera hand-bag. I think we left it on the table
yesterday afternoon when we were watching Luca do his processing. We
were on 2 tables, so it was clearly left behind.
Can’t
go back to Tuscany now – too far back. Oh well. Such a shame as
it was a great little camera, but it was all about the little video’s
we took. We didn’t get to download yesterday’s little towns and
I took a lot of great photos with it too. Such a shame. You get
that I suppose…..too many things going on. Too distracted and rush
rush rush.
Luca
drove through Bologna on the freeway – autobarn of sorts, till we
got to Modena. We stopped at an eatery that is along the freeway.
Blimey-Charlie it is packed with people. It cracks us up that
everyone likes to have big meals for lunch. Luca had a coffee, so
he felt human again. Steve and I had some sort of semi-freddo
thing…. Chocolate & vanilla. Thought it was a tub of
ice-cream, but not really sure what it was in reality. Luca shook
his head in disgust! Ha ha He was eating a sandwich with panchetta
& mozzarella. Luca thinks it is weird that we could eat
something sweet for lunch!
Steve
bought a Fanta in a blue bottle, only to say it tasted like S*** -
Luca deciphered it for us, it is a limited edition Fanta Elderflower!
Steve thought it would be Fanta flavoured only blue colour! Ha ha
ha So I drank it for him. He’ll be drinking Coke from now on –
you can’t get that too wrong.
Bit
disappointed with the Bologna region. It is full of smog. Although
Luca said it is not smog, but “fog”, it is here all year around.
But for us we think it is smog. Even out of Modena and along the
freeway it is still very smoggy. The vineyards are starting to
change to their autumn foliage – lots of reds and oranges starting
to appear. Hopefully it will be colourful up in the mountains.
The
toll way is charged by the kilometres travelled, so Luca estimates by
the time we get off and pay it will cost him about 50 euro! OMG !!
No wonder people take the fast train when they can. Cost a bit less
but they would get faster I would think. I wont complain about our
toll-ways again.
The
boys seem to be feeling a bit better now they have had coffee &
something sweet & drugs! I have a splitting headache, but thats
to be expected for the next few days at least.
We
are all looking forward to seeing mountains now. Tuscany was lovely.
Every hill is basically a postcard. I can only imagine how
beautiful it is when the mist is in the valleys and when the hills
are green – it must be truly breathtaking. But it wasn’t to be
for us on this trip – but still, it was great to see and
experience.
Luca
has been trying to ring the gate house at the Lavena Park to see that
we can drive up, but no one is answering the phone!! ha ha
Apparently whilst it is a national park, it is privately owned, so if
the owner wants to close the park – it is closed. It can be at any
time. It is normally closed for winter, but there is no specific
date that is closes. Ha ha ha – got to love the Italians. Even
the “emergency huts” up there may or may not be open! So much
for “emergency”! Ha ha ha
We
still have another 250kms to go, so we will sit back and enjoy the
countryside and watch the changing scenery and architecture as we go.
Poor
Luca’s throat is sore and he wanted a strepsil that Steve gave him
today….I was busy looking in my F-Stop bag and guess what I
found...yes, the Nikon Orange camera!! YAY!! The black side was up
and hiding down between the ICU and pack! Thank god! :)
We
are now in the region of Trento and the flat ground has made way for
steep mountains. We are driving through the valley, so it is just
beautiful. Each side of the freeway has little towns and lots and
lots of vine-yards! We’ve seen a few castles high up on the hills,
and some have been heavily fortressed!
Steve
was very happy to see way off in the distance (where we are driving
to), is a very high mountain and there is some snow high up on the
top!!
The mountains here are too low for snow. The foliage is starting to change colour the further north we are going. I would imagine in 4 weeks time it would be truly pretty!!
We
can’t get over the motorway. Lots and lots of traffic, all
weaving in and out of each other. Luca is averaging 135 km/hr and
Tim and Scott are 20mins ahead of us. Tim must have been averaging
at least 160 km/hr and I am assuming he stayed in the Left Hand lane
the whole way! Ha ha (So would have Steve!)
WOW
– it really is very pretty up here and Luca has said it gets even
prettier! The tuscan style villas are slowly making way to a more
alpine Austrian chalet style home.
Very
Happy I found that orange camera – now we can take video’s at the
Dolomites!! YAY!!
OMG
– Villnoss…… I can’t describe it any other way other than
PICTURE PERFECT!! Rolling green hills with ski chalet style homes
scattered over the rolling green hills. Cyprus with Larch’s all
turning their autumn colours – it is so very very pretty. Cows
with cow bells off in the distance and then in the valley is the most
amazing mountains – Odle Mountains. WOW….OMG, I mean – WOW!
Luca
took us to the central area where the most famous church and town is
with the Odle Ranges behind them, before taking us to check into the
hotel - Muhlerhof Guest House.
A
typical chalet style. WOW – honestly, you’d think we were in
some movie. The old owner came to meet us….he didn’t speak a
word on English and my german is not so good. He was wearing this
dark green jackets and pants with a german hat with a feather! OMG –
I have to sneak in a photo of him later – you have to see him to
believe him. I just wanted to give him a cuddle!
The apartment is so spacious….and the bathroom….Steve wants to build one like it at home with a big shower and sauna all in one!
We
dumped our gear and drove back to the scene Luca showed us earlier.
WOW We walked around the paddocks till we found our ideal
composition for the night and there we stayed.
There
were plenty of tourists around, near us and back behind us. Must
have been about 50 people at one time. Once the sun had dipped
behind one mountain, everyone disappeared, but we stayed a bit
longer till the last light had left the valley. Just gorgeous.
Now,
we are close to the Austrian border, so everything is in german.
They speak only German. They know Italian, but they refuse to speak
it (but Luca has been quite determined to get them to speak it to
him). Their english is ok at the restaurants, but no where else.
Its a bit like Sydney vs Melbourne…this love/hate relationship.
They are in Italy, but refuse to acknowledge it! Quite funny
really!!
We
went into town to have dinner. The boys had pizza and Scott had
Weiner Schnitzel and I had some local dish, of a big round spinach
dumpling and a Cheese dumpling and then some nice ravioli with
spinach. It was nice...heavy, but nice. Would I have it again?
Probably not – not when there are many other things to eat!
For
dessert I decided not to have Gelati, but to have Tartufo!! YUMMY!
The boys all have Tiramisu. Luc didn’t have dessert – he only
eats sweet things for breakfast and not for dinner! Sugar in coffee
is for girls apparently. Cappuccino is only for breakfast and then
espresso every other time – NO SUGAR!! ha ha We are having a
ball learning all the typical Italian ways off Luca!
We
were back at the apartment by 9.30pm and I was straight to bed.
Luca is so sick – he had an hour shower with a sauna. Steve sat up
for a while editing images and then he came to bed where he coughed
all night. Hopefully we can get some better drugs in Cortina in a
few days time. I think Tim and Scott will be sick in the coming
days. I am only 1.5 days away from finishing my antibiotics, but
with everyone sick around me, I’ll relapse again! Oh well. Thank
god I bought plenty of Codral.
