One last weekend trip: the Dolomites

Before our final week of packing and good-byes, we had reserved this past weekend for one last family mini-vacation.  Since Julia loves mountains, and Benjamin had never been to Italy, we decided on Brixen, a beautiful little town in northern Italy, just at the edge of the Dolomite mountain range.

Both the town of Brixen and the surrounding mountains are extraordinary.  

It is funny, if sometimes confusing, to see both Italian and
German names for all the towns in this region.

It was also easy for us to communicate since you hear more German than Italian in this area.  (Südtirol, or the South Tyrol region, was part of Austria for centuries and almost entirely German speaking, until annexed by Italy at the end of WWI.  Despite "Italianization" efforts by Mussolini, the Germanic culture here is still very strong.)

The food options are marvelous here, of course, since you get the best of both German and Italian cuisine.  Especially pizza!!

Saturday morning we took a bus up a very steep, hair-pin curve road, to a gondola station that took us up to 2050 m before we even started hiking!  

We were lucky with the weather, and with the surprising sparsity of people on the trails (although there were a few cows and horses...)

We decided on a trail that took us to the top of Mt. Gabler (2576 m).  It was relatively easy, until the last few minutes of steep climbing, but -- wow-- the view at the top was worth everything.

On the way up...

From the top of Mt. Gabler.  Awesome.  (That's Julia in the foreground)

After the steep climb up the north side, we were pleasantly surprised to find a relatively flat alpine meadow on top of the mountain (with a small hut, with guest book, which Julia signed).

Julia was sooooo happy to be there...

The "hut" we found for a drink on the way down, was quite luxurious, with a playground, lounge chairs with woolskins, and a fabulous view.  (It's called Rossalm, if anyone wants to book room there...)

The weather just kept getting better, and the view on our way down was like a dream.  We must have taken hundreds of pictures.  I'll limit myself to a couple here :-)

*sigh*  

Pizza dinner (again) felt great.   

Although were were exhausted, we walked around the lovely Baroque town before getting kids to bed, simply because it was so... well, European.  

We met the Salditts later that evening (they were also on their way to a more extended vacation in the Dolomites, and we'd arranged to overlap for a day) and we four adults had a perfect glass of Südtyrol wine in a perfectly quaint alley in the old town.  It doesn't feel much more like summer vacation than this...

Sunday with the Salditts, we did a relatively easy hike (repeating the panoramic hike from Plose gondola to the Rossalm) and then enjoyed the hotel pool until it was time to catch the train.

What a wonderful mini-vacation.  

Now on to the somewhat less fun business of packing...

Goodbye, Alps....