Den and Wen in Italy - The Dolomites Day 4

Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026 - Breakfast at the Hotel Diamont was fun - as we were chatting, I was asked what kind of music I listen to on my Road Trips. When I said "Oh, rock 'n roll - The Rolling Stones, ...", the British lady at the next table exclaimed "OH - THE STONES ARE MY FAVORITE!" Smiles all around (and stories about Hyde Park performances 50 years apart).

We started the day with a 2/3 mile hike through town, to the little gondolas:

The Group is going on a 5-mile hike up on The Pralongià Plateau, with a cheese-tasting adventure in the afternoon. The Dixon's, however, are going to take it easy today (I'm getting a "Sports Massage"). So we hiked around The Plateau for a little while before going back down:

Wendy got to play for a bit:

Pretty view as we took the gondola back down:

Nice architecture in town:

We had lunch, and did our massages and relaxation (at one point in my "Sports Massage" I thought: "This will either help my pain, or I Will Never Walk Again." It helped the pain.). Later in the afternoon, I looked up Wendy's location on "Find Friends":

Dinner-with-the-group, and off to bed. WOW - Thank you God for this wonderful Dolomite-Adventure Day!

Shameless Plug: if you enjoy this blog, you may like my other one about Hiking the 4,000 footers in New Hampshire/Vermont/Maine/New York:
hyperlink: dixonheadingnorth
http://dixonheadingnorth.blogspot.com/

Den and Wen in Italy - The Dolomites Day 3

Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026 - Breakfast at the Alpenroyal - note 2 tableclothes on each table:

To start the day, we took a 15-minute bus ride west, back down The Valley. It is a cloudy day as we took a cable-car up for our morning hike:

As we took the cable-car up, we entered the clouds. But then, less than 100 yards from the end of the ride, WE BROKE OUT OF THE CLOUDS! Everyone applauded - it was a magical, mystical experence, and even humbled our guides:

The Seceda cable car top station sits at 2,518 meters, which is 8,261 feet (Estes Park, Colorado is at 7,522 feet).

In the blazing sunshine, we started our hike:

Very cool views down the valley (I like the ski lift coming out of the clouds):

WONDERFUL HIKE (as you can probably tell, it doesn't get any easier than this) - 2.67 miles through ⁨Parch Naturel/Puez-Odles/Val Gardena:

The clouds seemed to recede as we moved downhill to our lunch-stop:

Our hike in Google Earth, with base imagery from October 2017 and February 2026:

Pretty neat view at lunchtime (I was able to give the honeymoon-couple in front of me a nice photo):

After lunch we were treated to a presentation on "The Making of Gin", while we sat on the hillside. Nice conference room:

After the presentation, we took gondolas back down to Santa Cristina Valgard. We "saw the sights" for about an hour:

Then The Bus took us to our 2nd hotel in the little village of San Ciascian:

I LOVE THE VIEWS, especially traveling through the fog-shrouded mountains:

We checked into Hotel Diamont at 6, with dinner at 7:

Dinner-with-the-group was a lot of fun, and off to bed. WOW - Thank you God for this wonderful Dolomite-Adventure Day!

Shameless Plug: if you enjoy this blog, you may like my other one about Hiking the 4,000 footers in New Hampshire/Vermont/Maine/New York:
hyperlink: dixonheadingnorth
http://dixonheadingnorth.blogspot.com/

Den and Wen in Italy - The Dolomites Day 2

Monday, Sept. 28, 2026 - Dawn rises on our 2nd Day in The Dolomites:

Time to rise-and-shine! Wait, what's this IN THE SHOWER???

I AM DEFINITELY NOT TOUCHING ANYTHING!!! (I used the hot water in the sink.)

Today's Adventure is a 3-mile-hike, plus a visit to a winery down in Kurtatsch, south of Bolzano:

Starting the hike about 11, it is a BEAUTIFUL day:

Down in Venice, the signs were in Italian and English. Up here in South Tyrol the 2 primary languages are Italian and German, with English an occasional 3rd. Today we are hiking the "The Kurtatsch - Margreid Instructional Wine Trail Magré" (the top red line, right-to-left):

It was a good hike - 3.14 miles to get to the winery in ⁨Magrè sulla Strada del Vino⁩:

I guess it is part of the "Italian Experience", but my life is complete without "winery tours":

We had lunch, then the bus back to the hotel. The countryside is pretty cool:

Wendy went swimming, and I decided to visit the town-to-the-west and grab another Post Office - 3.19 miles round-trip:

The first leg was downhill, and I saw some pretty cool stuff - note the model of the building:

Fun building, plus a post office (America has better ones), in ⁨Santa Cristina Gherdeina⁩:

My butt-muscle was hurting, and it was a lot of work getting back up to the hotel:

I love the lighting of the setting sun behind me:

A beautiful dinner this evening (Wendy took pictures of each course), and off to bed. WOW - Thank you God for this wonderful Dolomite-Adventure Day!

Shameless Plug: if you enjoy this blog, you may like my other one about Hiking the 4,000 footers in New Hampshire/Vermont/Maine/New York:
hyperlink: dixonheadingnorth
http://dixonheadingnorth.blogspot.com/