“Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.” Lou Holtz

"I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand." Confucius

Wednesday 23 July 2014

Cortina d'Ampezzo

So we picked Alex up at the international airport outside Venice in steamingly hot weather, the drove up to the Dolomites..to Cortina d'ampezzo.

Our apartment here is just brilliant..loads of room. a laundry and a bike shed.  There are 2 bathrooms and the water is HOT!  not only that but there is free wifi, satellite TV, a microwave and rarest of all kitchen beasts here in Italy...an electric kettle.

The only downside and it's not that bad really is that each ride starts off with a 2 km uphill slog...we wld have been really annoyed but after the Pedavena hill we had to haul ourselves up at the end of each day, this pimple is a very++ slight annoyance.

The forecast for   the week was, to say the least, extremely disappointing but actually like all forecasts has been less than accurate so far.

The area is very close to Austria and at 1 time probably WAS Austria, so the differences are very obvious..place names in 2 languages, decent Austrian bread rather than the stuff I dont like and which is in the shops just an hour's drive further south.  Then there's the architecture and the more Austrian style designs in the clothing. etc etc.  Also I'm now mistaken for an Austrian or perhaps a German  or perhaps a Swiss lady rather than well we know yr not Italian..maybe ur an American or a Pom.

So our rides here are just so full of photo opps its hard not to stop every km or so.  Our first ride was up the Passo Falzarego and the Valparola.  I was slow and Alex kepton coming back down to round me up like a sheep.I.started to call him Lassie!!

there's a bit more to the ride, but my cyclo computer was giving me a bit of grief, so I missed the last bit.

The next day the weather was baaaaad and we thought we'd have to have a day off...later onit clearedup and we went out but I turned round early as my legs were suffering from 3 really hard rides and 1 day off driving.

Today we rode the Passo Tre Croci in good weather despite the forecast.  It's a really nice gentle ride and my legs were good again.  Tomorrow we hope to do something alot harder, the Passo Giau

We stopped off at a souvenir shop near the Lago Misurina and were more than somewhat surprised to see what was almost  a shrine to Mussolini..with pictures and even  Mussolini themed calendars for sale.




1 comment:

  1. Non mi aspettavo proprio un tempio dedicato a Mussolini!

    ReplyDelete